The practice of politics in postcolonial Brazil

"The Practice of Politics in Postcolonial Brazil traces the history of high and low politics in nineteenth-century Brazil from the vantage point of the provincial capital of Porto Alegre. In the immediate postcolonial period, new ideas about citizenship and freedom were developing, and elites struggled for control of the state as the lower classes sought inclusion in political life. The emergent Liberal Party, while initially successful in dismantling Portuguese trade restrictions, later came to be viewed as an elitist group that staved off threats to the systems of slavery, patronage, and the class hierarchy."--Jacket.