The missing link, in three movements: civil society in TAVARES BASTOS, OLIVEIRA VIANA E RAYMUNDO FAORO

Abstract

The article deals with the relative absence of Civil Society in the historical accounts of different narratives on Brazil’s sociopolitical formation. It investigates this convergence through a close reading of three key-authors from the Brazilian political thought tradition: Tavares Bastos, Oliveira Viana e Raymundo Faoro. In their seemingly antagonistic perspectives, this article argues that it is proficuous to highlight how the common topos of Civil Society’s absence has determined their diagnosis and normative projects. As a consequence, this shared core blurs the distinctions between the traditional roots of Brazilian political thought, framing together the late nineteenth century’s classical liberalism, the early twentieth century’s authoritarian iberianism and the most recent liberal republicanism.