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Kompass

Thinkers and political figures

Photographic portrait of Getúlio Vargas, 1930.

Portrait: Photograph, 1930, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain

Getúlio Vargas

Country
Brazil
Era
1882–1954
Tradition
Corporatist populism, developmentalism

Ruled Brazil for eighteen of twenty-four years, first as dictator and then as elected president, industrialising the country and writing its labour code before shooting himself in office.

01

Documented positions

Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.

  • Established the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1937, dissolving congress and censoring the press
  • Wrote the consolidated labour laws granting the minimum wage, paid holidays, pensions and the eight-hour day
  • Created state enterprises in steel, oil and mining, including Petrobras and Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional
  • Granted women the vote in 1932 and introduced the secret ballot
  • Organised unions under state control, requiring official recognition and banning independent federations
  • Brought Brazil into the Second World War on the Allied side after initial ambivalence
  • Was returned to office by election in 1951 and took his own life in 1954 amid a political crisis
02

Where it sits on each dimension

Wealth and inequality

26

Evidence: Well documented

The state in the economy

20

Evidence: Well documented

Personal liberty

18

Evidence: Well documented

Tradition and change

55

Evidence: Documented

Nation and the world

84

Evidence: Well documented

Power and its limits

20

Evidence: Well documented

Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Religion and the state, Environment and growth, Crime and punishment

Sources

  • Government of Brazil, Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho · 1943
  • Robert M. Levine, Father of the Poor? Vargas and His Era · Cambridge University Press · 1998

Last verified: