Until the storm passes : politicians, democracy, and the demise of Brazil's military dictatorship / Bryan Pitts

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Media Files -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction. A Nation for All or a Few? The Political Class, the People, and the Rise and Fall of Brazil's Military Dictatorship -- 1 "The Blood of the Youth Is Flowing" The Political Class and Its Children Take on the Military in 1968 -- 2 "The Funeral of Democracy" The Showdown with the Military and Institutional Act No. 5 -- 3 "The Political Class Has Learned Nothing" The Military Punishes the Political Class -- 4 "Sheltered under the Tree" The Everyday Practice of Politics under Dictatorial Rule -- 5 "We Aren't a Flock of Little Sheep" The Political Class and the Limits of Liberalization -- 6 "We Cannot Think about Democracy the Way We Used To" The ABC Strikes and the Challenge of Popular Mobilization -- 7 "I Want to Vote for President" Diretas J̀, the Political Class, and the Demise of the Military Dictatorship -- Conclusion: Freedom, Justice, and Solidarity for Brazil? The Political Class under Dictatorship and Democracy -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Until the Storm Passes reveals how Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship contributed to its own demise by alienating the civilian political elites who initially helped bring it to power. Based on exhaustive research conducted in nearly twenty archives in five countries, as well as on oral histories with surviving politicians from the period, this book tells the surprising story of how the alternatingly self-interested and heroic resistance of the political class contributed decisively to Brazil's democratization. As they gradually turned against military rule, politicians began to embrace a political role for the masses that most of them would never have accepted in 1964, thus setting the stage for the breathtaking expansion of democracy that Brazil enjoyed over the next three decades