ABSTRACT
Brazil has often been portrayed and characterized as a nation existing on two levels where an incredibly rich, developed, educated, and very small minority managed to dominate the poor majority, many living on a subsistence level, unorganized and leaderless. Economist Edmar Bacha characterized this dualism as a "Belindia". The Castelo Branco presidency was marked by tension between hard-line and soft-line factions in the military. The former pressured for major surgery on Brazil's political system requiring a long period of military rule, minor plastic surgery, and a quick return to a civilian president after the October 1965 presidential elections. Since the end of the military regime in 1985, Brazilian representative democracy has suffered considerable trials and tribulations. Tancredo Neves died on the eve of his inauguration; the first popularly elected president since 1960 was constitutionally impeached in 1992; several major congressional investigations shook the foundations of Brazil's political and economic institutions.
