Entrepreneurs and the State in Brazil in the transition from dictatorship to democracy: The case of public works contractors

Abstract

The article intends to problematize the activity of entrepreneurs in the political transition of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship that began with the coup of 1964 to the constitutional regime established by the Constitution of 1988, emphasizing the activities of public works contractors in this process. Based on an expanded conception of the State, supported by the reflections of Antonio Gramsci, we analyze the organizational forms of these agents within the scope of civil society and theirrelationship with the agencies of the State apparatus. Based on the reading and analysis of sources of trade associations of contractors, we noticed that there is a modification of the mechanisms of individual and collective action by these entrepreneurs, who stop prioritizing the work with military officers and a direct interaction with state companies and authorities of the executive power to develop a more intense relation with political parties, parliamentary dynamics, electoral campaigns and the press in order to maintain the power and insertion in the state apparatus that these entrepreneurs reached during the dictatorial regime.

Keywords: entrepreneurs, Brazilian civil-military dictatorship, public works contractors, political transition, Brazilian state.