ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a contextual analysis of the behavior of the Brazilian military from 1977 to 1981. It discusses three key events: the selection of General Joao Baptista Figueiredo as the new president of Brazil in December 1977; the pacote de abril of 1977; and the political reform of October 1978. In the case of Brazil there is a virtual unanimity that the inauguration of the regime came during its most repressive phase, more than four years after the installation of the military government. The chapter suggests that the antidemocratic values of many political actors and the bottlenecks of the exchanges between the domestic and external sectors of the Brazilian political economy can undermine the ultimate consolidation of a democratic regime in that country. However, political transitions and regime inaugurations are produced by many acts of political will by many different people.
