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  • Guerreiro Ramos 1968 Tipologia de Nacionalismos 1

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    Diogo Fideles
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    Tipologia de Nacionalismos

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    Tipologia de Nacionalismos

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    8 vistas53 páginas

    Guerreiro Ramos 1968 Tipologia de Nacionalismos 1

    Cargado por

    Diogo Fideles
    Tipologia de Nacionalismos

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Descargue como PDF o lea en línea desde Scribd
    Marcar por contenido inapropiado
    de 53
    TYPOLOGY OF NATIONALISM IN BRAZIL (A Case of Political Breakdown) Guerreiro~Ramos Professor, School of Public Administration University of Southern California Los Angeles, California +++Yet the feeling has grown that nationalism is ceasing to be legitimate. . Karl Deutsch, "Nation and World" in Ithiel de Sola Pool (ed.), Contemporary Political Science, McGraw- Hill Company, New York, 1967, p. 218. ++.What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule...is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what {s your duty better than you know it. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, The Peter Pauper Press, Mount Vernon, New York, 1967, pp. 16-17. You always laughed at heroics. ‘People who suffer bore me,' you said. .'Misfortunes are due mainly to miscalculations.' And: 'If there are obstacles, the shortest line between two points may be the crooked line.' Andrea speaking to Galileo. In Bertolt Brecht, Gali}eo, English version by Charles Laughton, Grove Press, Inc., New York, 1966, p. 122. Los Angeles February, 1968 TYPOLOGY OF NATIONALISM IN BRAZIL (A Case of Political Breakdown) Table of Contents” Conceptualization of Brazilian Nationalism ‘Types of Nationalism in Brazil The Image of the Nation as a Closed System Operational Nationalism Cooptive Nationalism Populist Nationalism Naive Nationalism The Myth of Social Contradictions The Myth of a Monolithic Brazilian Dominant Class The Mythical Reification of Imperialism The Myth of the Messianic Role of the Proletariat Cognitive Orientations of Brazilian Nationalists Wholism Hyper-Historicism Hyper-Objectivism Disciplinary Syncretism Views of Nationalist Writers Before the Coup d'Etat Views of Nationalist Writers About the Coup d'Etat of March 31, 1964 Some Positive Aspects of Nationalism for the Brazilian Intelligentsia Attempt at Disciplinary Integr#tion Sociological Reduction : Mobilization of Social Sciences to Clarify and Solve Concrete Problems of Brazilian Development Some Factors of the Breakdown of Brazilian Nationalism The Crisis of ISEB The Meteoric Career of Quadros as a National Leader Goulart on the Stage Idlosyneratic Variables Idiosyncrasies of Quadros On Goulart's Psychological Profile The Political System of Brazil Reascns for the Coup d'Etat The New Brazilian Inteiligentsia References Bibliography In an earlier effort the writer contrasted theories about modernization _ by setting up two polar models called Theory N and Theory P. Theory N proponents view modernization as a set of certain progressive steps based on the necessary, and perhaps only, logical consequence of a given situation. Thus, Theory N proponents tended to talk about things which were needed or necessary or fatalistically determined. Proponents of Theory P, the “possibility model," presuppose that human choices, within Umits, have a relevant role in the social and historical process. The present paper is conceived to be a concrete illustration of what this writer has been calling the “possibility model." It deals with a case of political breakdown in Brazil. “One of the main assumptions of this paper is the idea that any thorough explanation of a case of breakdown will necessarily fail, 1f one does not give formal attention to the decisions of human actors. The historical and social process 1s not blind sequence of events in which the human actor always plays a passive role. History and society are man= ufactured by human decisions, although within Hmitations imposed by the circumstances. In any social process, particularly the political process, it \, i 4s possible to argue the responsibility of human agents. Success and failure, achievement and breakdown, can be visualized from a volunatristic standpoint, —. *Although I assume total responsibility for my paper's content and conceptualization, I want to express my gratefulness to Professor Wesley Bjur who fitted my original English to grammatical requirements. Also I thank Mare Lindenberg for his careful revision of this paper, from which resulted many refinements, including conceptual ones. -2- which does not deny the impingement of objective factors. In other words, the so-called “objective conditions," soctal and historical "forces ," are not the whole story in any course of events. In fact, very often they are alleged as excuses for irresponsibility, for occasional or systematic mis~ calculation. There is no achievement without merit. No breakdown without demerit. Both are results ef intanionel Bale of willing, tn a vortein measore, joidie-or Bua, according to the circumstances. Determinism understood as fatalism is unacceptable by social science. Soctety is an open system, 1.¢., one in which what {s actualized is always one among other possibilities . Social scientific theories are risky theorles in the sense that they commit the honor of one's reasoning, They are exact conjectures, {.e., conjectures with predictable and precisé margins of error-—The true scientist does not excuse himself when-his-Gonjecture 1s empirically unconfirmed. In such a case, he is ethically obliged to admit he is wrong. The case of breakdown we are going to examine may reveal the m= {tations of both a theoretical attitude about nationalism and a set of human actor's decisions. Indeed, March 31, 1964, 1s a landmark in the contemporary political history of Brazil. It is not only the day when President Jo&o Goulart was ousted from office by a military coup d'etat;? it can also be considered a tuming point in the course of the Brazilian nationalist movement. From, our | vantage point, such a movement can be considered a case of a prophecy that | failed. This paper will examine the reactions of the Brazilian nationalist =3- mo. \ intellectuals and politicians to the breakdown of their endeavors, illustrated | by the fall of President Jofo Goulart. It will focus, also upon the behavioral and cognitive orfentations of the nationalist intelligentsia in Brazil. 3 | Finally, no social scientist can hope to screen out all of his personal values. I wish to wam my readers that I was a dissident Participant in both the nationalist movement and the prevailing left current of Brazilian political life. My approach is limited in the following ways. First, the expression “nationalist political theory" which will occur here cannot be considered as @ set of empirically valid statements, but rather as a complex set of views and conceptual assumptions of variable degrees of logical and concrete consistency. Second, since the main point of the paper is typological; I will ir clude historical details only when necessary. Third, no individual cited in this paper completely fits my typology. Some writers are moré Tepresentative than others. Fourth, Iam studying nationalism in a limited time span, the last fifteen years in Brazil. , A Conceptualization of the Brazilian Nationalism In the last fifteen years nationalism in Brazil deserves to be technically considered as a social movement. As such, it has been, as any other social movement, a “large-scale, widespread, and continuing elementary collective behavior in pursuit of an objective that affects and shapes the social order in some fundamental aspect.’ This definition is, in itself, a criterion to characterize contemporary Brazilian nationalism. ‘There are in Brazilian history many instances of mobilization of people v around issues and problems which are again under consideration by nationalists . But in the past, nationalism as a political systematic attitude, never attained the stage of a true social movement as above defined.° As a social movement, itis a comparatively late phenomenon in Brazil. Thus, we can define it as a social movement whose followers feel themselves committed to the task of mobilization of the national population to achieve full capacity of self- direction as a nation anda state. This definition is sufficiently general to include the latter day nationalism in the Western European countries as well as of contemporary emergent countries. But this 1s not to say that nationalism has not had different reasons to appear and different contents in the past and present, Although tt has some similarities with other movements, Brazilian nationalism is globally a specific historical event. Thus, the attempt at its categorization in this paper is not thought to be fully extrapolated to other cases or to other nations. Since nationalism began in Brazil as a social movement about fifteen years ago, a great number of books, publications, and articles in newspapers, ° periodicals, and journals of several sorts, sizes, and degrees of sophistication have appeared and have been read sympathetically by a significant part of the Uterate population everywhere in the country. Although heterogeneous as far as organization, ideological and theoretical orientation is concerned, such movement became powerful and influential. However, at a certain moment of its evolution, its elite, intellectuals and politicians, and its mass membership became committed to a style of thinking, some of whose characteristics became dysfunctional for the manifest goal of the movement. These characteristics arrived at a climax point at the time when Jo8o Goulart was President of Brazil from September 7, 1961 to March 31, 1964. If the nationalist literature has always had a high content of metaphysics and belief, during the Goulart presidency such a content was stronger than at any time before. As President, Goulart flattered the nationalists, attracted them, while pursuing his own political roles, and, so to speak, made them believe that they had mass power, which the circumstances did not support. ‘They became extremely bovaristic and optimistically faithful about the val- idity of their ideas. Nationalism in those days was rather a faith than a true theory. A great part of the predictions and analyses of the nationalist writers were based on assumptions dogmatically taken for granted, without satis- factory consideration of their empirical support. The breakdown of the Goulart government and the subsequent events in Brazil have created difficult Mmes for nationalists. In a word, such happenings are a demonstration of the lack of objectivity and even of the metaphysical content of the general approach of those who, in the days of the Goulart government, seized the leadership ofthe Brazilian nationalist movement. Types of Nationalism in Brazil First of all, let us consider what deserve to be called the myths of Brazilian nationalist political theory. ‘ ‘The Image of the Nation as a Closed System The first of these myths 1s the one which considers the nation as a closed system or as an entity, intrinsically good or rational. While it is true that this image of the nation has not been shared by all nationalists, it can'be considered as a category of our typology because it was predominant “in the movement. Thus, it is possible to classify different types of nation- alism across a gamut of commitment by the nationalists to this kind of nationalistic myth. We will characterize four types of nationalism: operational nationalism, cooptive nationalism, populist nationalism and naive nationalism. Operational Nationalism. We propose to call the first of these types oper- ational, or strategic nationalism. Those who practice operational nationalism do not consider the nation as a definitive or eternal form of organization of a people in history. For them, every kind of nationalism is circumstantial, and the contemporary version is a provisory means of mass mobilization in the peripheral countries destined to liberate them from colonial dependence. They believe that they are forced to act as nationalists by the contemporary conditions of the world. The assumption of this type of nationalism is at the foundation of the work of some Brazilian intellectuals and politicians. -7- At least one writer expressed it in articulate terms.° Those who have practiced this form of nationalism--intellectuals, professionals, social scientists, and politicians--have been more concerned with specific national issues and problems than with political agitation. Furthermore, the group of intellectuals who founded the IBESP (Brazilian Institute of Economics, Soctology and Politics) in 1953 can be considered as operationally orlented. Again, the Advanced Institute of Brazilian Studies, very well known by its acronym ISEB, was founded in 1955, also under the inspiration of this type of nationalism. It was designed to be a scientific institution. In its Department of Sociology, an effort was begun in that year, and continued until 1988, to delineate the methodological guidelines of a social science suited to the Brazilian conditions, and to constitute a bank of empirical date about several problems. This Department constituted a research service that, in 1958, prepared monographs on several Brazilian concrete problems. In December, 1958, an internal crisis occurred , dividing those who had founded the ISEB. This split resulted in the resignation of this writer, then Director of that Department. From 1959 on the group of intellectuals who controlled the ISEB considered it an agency for political mobilization rather than for academic research. In addition to the intellectuals, a number of politicians, businessmen and administrators behaved as operational nationalists. For instance, San Thiago Dentas served as Minister of Foreign Relations (from September, 1961 to January, 1963) and Carvalho Pinto served as Minister of Finance (from June to December, 1963). These men have served as problem-solvers and negotiators with external interests, rather than as systematic bellevers in an all inclusive ideology. Cooptive Nationalism. Another variation is cooptive nationalism. In general those who adopt the cooptive nationalism do so for Machiavellian reasons. Recognizing the popular appeal of the movement, they adhere to it, without arguing its eventual ideological content, but instead attempting to manipulate the electorate in favor of their own political goals. We have to distinguish between two types of cooptive nationalism: the paternalistic and the com- munistic, Some professional politicians, who we call cooptive paternalistic nationalists, run their careers in traditional terms. They are not concerned about ideological issues. They are realists. They do not hesitate to present themselves as nationalists in order not to lose their positions in the power structure. The communists are also followers of the cooptive nationalism but for different reasons. They are essentially internationalists and in theory they tend to think of nationalism as a bourgeois ideology. However, ina developing country like Brazil, they admit that nationalism is functional to their goal. Therefore, they attempt to coopt the natfonalist movement. In the days of the Goulart government, the communists had strong positions in the leadership of the nationalist movement, and the faculty of ISEB was dom- inated by them. Populist Nationalism. Populist natfonalism is usually practiced by politicians who have no articulated ideology. In general, they mobilize sentiments, feelings, and emotions, in combination with some theoretical elements of a mandan flavor, They cannot be considered communists because, in general, they do not relate their actions to mandsm nor do they admit the subordination of the Brazilian nation to guidelines formulated by any other nation, even the Soviet Union, China or Cuba. Nevertheless, they are very sympathetic to the so-called socialist nations. They sometimes show a great degree of Sincere concern about the suffering of the poor which makes them very influential in the Brazilian context. We tend to include Jodo Goulart and Leonel Brizola as outstanding representatives of this kind of nationalism. Naive Nationalism. The followers of naive or ethnocentric nationalism tend to consider the Brazilian nation as a closed system. Ina limited sense, they believe that everything that {s Brazilian is essentially cocd and every- thing that is foreign 1s essentially bad. This kind of nationalism 1s close to xenophobia. Of course, a full, crude commitment to it is rare. Naive nationalism has pervaded,

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