Partido político, conservadorismo e ditadura militar: a Aliança Renovadora Nacional (ARENA) na Paraíba (1964-1968)

Abstract

The overall purpose of this paper is to analyzethe conservatism shared by sectors of political class in Brazilian state of Paraíba by the time of the coup d'état launched in the country in 1964 and in the first four years of the dictatorship subsequently established. Through the analysis of the Aliança Renovadora Nacional (National Renewal Alliance – ARENA in the Portuguese acronym), a political party created by the authoritarian regime to represent its interests in the democratic institutions that remained in operation, this research’s effort is in order to understand the motivations that led part of the political class in Paraíba to associate to the coup of 1964, to join the ARENA, as well as the support provided in the legitimation of the regime. The working premise is that a major conservative feeling, contrary to the proposals of basic reform of João Goulart’s government and to the action of the groups and popular organizations from left in the State, is what drove part of the local political class to adopt a stance favorable to the coup and the dictatorship. In this sense, a valuable concept in this analysis is the one of political culture, diagnosing the existence of a Brazilian one, endowed with values, traditions, imaginaries, practices and political representations, which base a conservative behavior in that State. The conservative elements in the "Brazilian political culture" could be identified in speeches, interviews and texts published by the party and its members, present in historical sources like the newspapers that circulated contemporaneously and in documents referring to the internal organization of ARENA.