Valor Econômico - Special Section - Fighting Corruption - 17/08/2012

For four scholars heard by Valor, the stereotype of the Brazilian rascal and conniving with small illegalities has no historical or atavistic support. Despite divergent lines of thought, they agreed on one point: the example of good conduct should come from the top floor.

For the anthropologist Roberto DaMatta, the Brazilian's behavior is explained by the composition of society. "The problem is that even today Brazil lives in an imperial model, an aristocratic and hierarchical society, in which a few people have privileges that do not belong to others". It is, he says, a model inherited from Portuguese civilization and which did not disappear with the Proclamation of the Republic, the separation of the Church from the State and the creation of the animal game in Rio de Janeiro. “In the Portuguese system, religious were judged by Canon Law and the nobles and ministers had privileged forums”. For DaMatta, the most evident signs of this model are the paternalism of the public service and the privileges of certain sectors of the Judiciary. "Our biggest problem is equality, civilizing public space and taking good care of everyone's money."

Sociologist Chico de Oliveira attributes corruption to the very essence of the capitalist system. “Great corruption does not occur within the State, it occurs in the relationship between the State and the market. It turns out that contemporary economic thinking absorbed the corruption practiced by the private sector and transformed it into competitiveness ”. Oliveira does not spare the unions, which tend to corrupt themselves as they deviate from their original functions and expand their powers to other areas of the economy.

For historian Marco Antonio Villa, corruption became more present in Brazil after the Proclamation of the Republic, with “peaks” during the Estado Novo (30s), but until the mid-80s it was not a phenomenon of endemic proportions like today. The historian believes that measures against corruption should have been taken when the country was re-democratized after the end of the military regime, which was not possible due to the illness of President-elect Tancredo Neves and the inauguration of the then vice president, José Sarney, representative of the more conservative forces. Villa does not agree with the thesis of a Portuguese colonial heritage. "It is wanting to imput the problem that is ours to the other". He criticizes what he considers a lack of politicization of society. (GM)