ABSTRACT
The jeitinho is the most famous umbrella term for social practices in the gray zone between legality and illegality in Brazil. In common understanding it means an especially Brazilian, creative problem-solving strategy to circumvent norms and rules with the purpose of attaining personal objectives. This chapter explores the jeitinho through a critical literature review with the objective to raise questions that might enlighten this cultural phenomenon and turn it more objectively intelligible, though subjectively less familiar. This is done by examining the jeitinho’s construction as idiosyncratic characteristic of Brazilian culture and central component of national identity, by verifying the evidence given for the jeitinho’s alleged endemic perception and use as a social practice and finally by scrutinizing its uniqueness as a Brazilian phenomenon. The conclusion is that the jeitinho constitutes, primarily, a specific cultural topos which fulfills the function for veiling and preserving asymmetric power relations and the status quo of social inequality. Although stigmatized in far right discourses as a symptom of a corrupted Brazil, this hegemonic mechanism still plays a determinant role in current political practices, as justification for pursuing political goals through “cleaning up” Brazil.
