ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses some of the issues related to democratization of the Brazilian polity, society, and economy. It examines some propositions about the transition process in order to introduce a more narrative discussion of the crisis of authoritarian rule and the process of liberalization from 1974 to 1985. The chapter analyzes the new civilian regime's management of the democratic agenda during 1985 and 1986 and offers some tentative reflections on the prospects for future democratization. Several excellent comparative studies of transitions to democracy have identified patterns of regime change. The regime's strategy can be interpreted as a series of ad hoc modifications enacted by the authoritarian elites, which were obliged to accept changes that extended substantially beyond the original opening project of institutionalization and legitimation of military rule. Domestic capital's opposition gradually acquired an implicit democratic content, notwithstanding the deeply conservative, even authoritarian tendencies of the Brazilian entrepreneurial class.
