The Rio Grande do Sul Sonderweg

Abstract

One of the main alleged or actual peculiarities of the Rio Grande do Sul state in the Brazilian context is that, in the Republican period, the role of local political leaders - the "coroneis" - were different than the ones in the rest of the country. The historiographical discussion regarding this issue comes from the 1960s. This suggests that this discussion should be revisited due to the profound implications of this interpretations, not only for the state itself, but for Brazil as a whole.