Empreiteiros e políticas públicas na Ditadura Civil-Militar, 1964-1988

Abstract

This essay aims to examine the state policies of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964-1988) for the heavy construction industry. Deriving from a larger study on the relationship of the heavy construction business with the dictatorship, we try to indicate how contractors - from their organization and positioning in state agencies – were benefited by public policies implemented beginning with the coup of 1964. Despite noticing differences from time to time and from government to government within the dictatorship, we conclude that these entrepreneurs were widely favored by the measures and policies implemented by the state apparatus. These measures were a decisive factor for several contractors that grew, diversified, and internationalized by the end of the dictatorship, assuming a position of monopoly capital, and becoming important agents of economic and political transition within the new state regime inaugurated in 1988.