Getúlio Vargas: o estadista, a nação e a democracia

Getulio Vargas was the great statesman of Brazil in the twentieth century. Originated in family of landowners, Getulio Vargas commanded the transition of Brazil from an agrarian to an industrial economy. A nationalist, he was able to lead manufacturing entrepreneurs, the public bureaucracy and the urban workers around a political pact and a national-developmentalist strategy. Being authoritarian between 1930 and 1945, he broke the hegemony of the agrarian and mercantilist oligarchies that dominated Brazil up to them. A populist, he was the first politician to establish a relation with the Brazilian people instead of just with its elites. In his second administration, between 1951 and 1954, he completed his national project. After it and the Kubitschek administration, the industrial and capitalist revolution of Brazil initiated in 1930 could be considered practically complete – what opened room for a more consolidated democracy in the country.