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RELATING AUTHORITY AND SOLIDARITY 79

society with traditional forms of participa- conferred upon the state the responsibility for
tion. Some view these new actors as virtuous, enforcing economic rationality. In countries
as a positive sign of societal strengthening. where state capitalism was the recipe, the
Instead, others see them as the perverse face governmental sector not only acted as a
of neo-liberalism that releases the state from strategic investor to create the proper condi-
social obligations, calls for philanthropy, and tions for private capital, but was also itself an
converts legitimate rights into charitable gifts. actor in the market game (Stepan, 1978).
No matter what the explanations are for Moreover, authority resources were credited
the origins of NGOs, and in spite of their with the responsibility to provide social wel-
ambiguous implications, they have prolifer- fare. Even if social welfare was understood
ated to become a truly global reality. In my as subordinate to the discretion of the pater-
view, more important than identifying the nal authority rather than the recognition of a
motivation behind the propagation of NGOs legitimate right, it was to the government that
is to explore to what extent they may be seen the prevailing ideology credited the responsi-
as responses to an altered social perception bility for social protection. True enough,
of the basic mechanisms of societal organiza- faith-inspired charity has always been very
tion. Also crucial is to map out the actual salient. However, in the Latin American con-
consequences of such developments for text, religious modernizers were part of the
social organization and their possible long- active leadership demanding state-led social
term consequences. Thus, I am, not siding development.
with the vast literature dedicated to celebrat- In the case of Brazil, starting from the
ing the virtues or the vices of the Third 1930s, the state played the key role in the
Sector, philanthropic initiatives, and NGOs. adopted growth model. Both under demo-
Nor will I, for the moment, pay attention to cratic and dictatorial regimes, national state
the ideological representation these organiza- firms constituted the backbone of develop-
tions make for themselves. My aim will be mental processes and state capitalism was
rather limited: to indicate some systematic perceived as the most legitimate model to
information on the structure and function of overcome underdevelopment and to promote
NGOs in Brazil so as to lay the ground for social inclusion (Martins, 1976; Reis,
further inquiry into changes in the ways soci- 1998b). Under the modernizing military dic-
ety and state interact. By choosing NGOs as tatorship (1964–1985), the number of state
an illustration of both cultural and institu- firms soared (Evans, 1979; Trebat, 1983). At
tional changes in progress, I am, to some the same time, the process of state-building
extent, taking them as proxies for civil soci- proceeded with significant government pene-
ety, although well aware that NGOs do not tration into hinterland areas and belated
exhaust the universe of civil society. extension of social benefits to rural dwellers.
It is important to take into account that, in The picture changed quickly in the 1980s,
the context of Latin American countries, the as much in Brazil as elsewhere. Pledges
proliferation of NGOs is quite a detour from for a lean state, and renewed praise for
the state-centered view that prevailed for new government management, typical of
most of the twentieth century. In fact, both Thatcherism and Reaganomics, quickly
the development literature, and the actual echoed in the Third World. Actually, be it
policy strategies adopted in the so-called within the advanced capitalist world, the
Third World, had as an assumption that former communist bloc, or the former Third
national states had the responsibility to World, less state and more society became
champion economic growth, to stimulate the prevailing ideology. In Latin America,
social modernization, and to promote social from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, fast
inclusion. Regardless of their socialist or economic privatization reversed the previous
capitalist inspiration, development models pro-statist orthodoxy in just a few years.