METAMORFOSES DO PENSAMENTO LIBERAL DE RUI BARBOSA: SUA POSIÇÃO SOBRE ESTADO E EDUCAÇÃO

Abstract

Signs and appropriations of liberalism by Rui Barbosa (1848-1923) in Brazil at the end of the 19th century are analyzed, while changes on his ideas of the State and on Education are explained. The statesman¿s stances were published in newspapers, in government programs, in Parliamentary speeches, in reform plans and mainly in the 1881 Election Reform Act and the 1882 and 1883 Act on Primary, Secondary and Higher Education. In his written speeches he defended the need of the State to take up total responsibility in schooling from the kindergarten to the College stage, in the course of which education access for the lower classes would be guaranteed. Rui Barbosa was one of the defenders of liberalism¿s basic suppositions since he had been a member of the Liberal party for almost two decades. Further, whereas he appropriated these ideas and gave them a twist of his own according to the country¿s needs, he defended state interference on the economy during the republican period and took protecting measures for Brazilian incipient industry. In his political role his stance was similar to that taken on his defense of the public school under the aegis of the State. Changes may thus be detected when contrasted to his previous ideas on private property, commercial, religious and individual freedom and the sovereignty of the individual person. Rui Barbosa, a zealous politician, struggled for the modernization of Brazil at several levels. The metamorphoses of his ideas may be revealed through the reading of his works.