Antônio Cândido's view on Brazilian political life in the second half of the twentieth century: the (dis) paths of democracy

Abstract

It is intended to analyse in this article the democracy conception that Antônio Cândido defended in his texts. In order to achieve this purpose it is necessary to verify his writings not only in the 1940s and 50s but also in the 1980s and 90s. A comparison will also be made between his way of conceiving the democratic political practice in the years before the coup d'état of 1964 and his way of discussing the democratic transition from the 1980s on. It is our purpose to answer the following question: was there a change, along all these years, in his way of conceiving democracy?