Businessmen adhere to pro-democracy acts out of principle and pocket, say political scientists

One of the milestones in the struggle for redemocratization, the Letter to Brazilians of 1977 today inspires a manifesto in defense of democracy and the country’s electoral system, with strong support from Brazilian business. 45 years ago, the text, written by the jurist Goffredo Silva Telles, who denounced the illegitimacy of the then military government, was signed mainly by legal professionals, but also received support from business leaders, keeping some similarities with the current movement.

This Thursday (11), the letter inspired by the 1977 movement, which already has more than 780 thousand signatures, will be read at the USP Law School. A second manifesto in defense of democracy, endorsed by entities such as Fiesp and Febraban, will also be read on the spot on the same day.

Political scientists heard by the Sheet are divided, however, on what motivates these political manifestations of the entrepreneur: the pocket or the principles?

“At that time there was a significant positioning of the business community in favor of democracy, which was an important element in that conjuncture. Of course we cannot generalize. There was also a portion that continued to be more sympathetic to the military regime, but the comparison is possible”, explains political scientist André Singer.

Support from various business sectors for the 1964 coup began to deteriorate after the period of the so-called economic miracle (1968-1973).

“The military managed to deliver a favorable economic position for a while, which justified everything in the minds of many people. But, with the oil crisis in 1973, the government tried a more active policy of spending to sustain the economy and generated a hole in public accounts, high inflation and a disorganization in the model created by the coup”, says Vinícius Muller, PhD in Economic History and professor at Insper.

He recalls that, in the early 1960s, a large part of the business community accepted a more authoritarian approach, believing that this type of regime would guarantee a safer environment against socialist onslaughts that were perceived as very threatening to capitalism.

For Singer, one of the factors that pushed the business community to change its position and begin to react against the military regime was the beginning of a broad program of state intervention in the Ernesto Geisel government (1974-1979).

“While the world was going into recession, the general decided that Brazil should continue to grow. The State was intervening a lot in the economy to maintain the country’s pace of development. advancement of the state”, he explains.

Despite the economic motivations, Singer argues that, in the late 1970s, businessmen were driven mainly by a political choice, in favor of democracy. What is repeated, according to the political scientist, in the face of coup threats by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

“Brazilian democracy has been in a process of fraying since the impeachment of former president Dilma. It started to be more threatened from 2018, with the victory of an anti-democrat and we got to the point where the current president says he will not accept the election results if you don’t win. And still announce it to the world”, says Singer. In the opinion of the political scientist, businessmen understood that there is a real danger and decided to make a decision in favor of democracy. “They didn’t do that either in the impeachment or in the last elections”, he points out.

Muller agrees that the position of business leaders is historically quite flexible, however, he believes that it is not very ideological.

“Most of the time, the business community makes a short and long-term calculation in the name of maintaining the business environment. And, today, what he realized is that the short-term risk of Bolsonaro’s permanence is greater than a victory for ex-president Lula. Bolsonaro is very erratic, gives conflicting signals and speeches, which makes it difficult for entrepreneurs and investments to plan,” he says.

The outbursts against the democratic State and the questioning of the electoral system promoted by the president also generate a lot of mistrust and a drop in international credibility. “This all comes at a very high cost,” says the doctor in economic history, who believes that the vast majority of the sector is in favor of democracy.

“Unlike in the 1960s and 1970s, when socialism was an issue for the sector, today there is talk of defense against communism, but it is minority and almost folkloric. a leftist candidate wins”, he says.

For Sérgio Praça, professor at FGV’s Center for Research and Documentation of Contemporary History of Brazil, the adhesion of the business community can also be attributed to the latest measures adopted by the president, such as the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) which gives free access to the government to circumvent fiscal and electoral barriers that prevent the granting of benefits in an election year.

“It was very difficult to think that a new Bolsonaro term will be able to rebuild the economy.”

In the view of political scientist Paulo Roberto Neves Costa, from the Federal University of Paraná, over the last few decades there has been a strong tendency on the part of the business community to only react to very specific moments of crisis in the pillars of democracy.

The current support for this pro-democracy movement is an example of this, according to Costa, since Bolsonaro’s anti-democratic attacks have been going on for a long time, but were considered more radical in the meeting with ambassadors, in which the President of the Republic cast doubt on the system. election in Brazil.

“When these sectors take more effective action, anticipating or facing medium and long-term problems, and not just acting at specific moments, democracy will win”, says Costa.