Embracing the Past, Designing the Future provides an historical overview of Brazilian authoritarianism and social/economic development during the political era (1930-45) of Getulio Vargas as viewed and understood by Oliveira Viana and Azevedo Amaral, two of the principal intellectuals and ideologues of the regime at the time. Oliveira Vianna was one of the main authors of the corporatist labour legislation and Azevedo Amaral remained an important publicist who was associated with the regimes propaganda apparatus. the heart of the discussion is the legitimacy of authoritarian modernisation. Brazil's contemporary uncertainty has deep parallels with the earlier period: unruly and un-democratic political debate coupled with economic stagnation. It was during the Vargas era that the power bases and fundamental principals of the construction of modern Brazil were defined in terms of its political administration and its economy and industry. These features may still be perceived in the country today, albei