Contractors, public tenders and moving the federal capital: the apex of Brazilian rodoviarismo in the Goals Plan (1956-1961)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyze how the Brazilian rodoviarismo reached its peak, in historical terms, during the Juscelino Kubitscheck administration (1956-61), correlating political and economic variables that are capable of explaining the phenomenon. Anchored in a specific concept of rodoviarismo and in research carried out in the magazine Rodovia, we will try to demonstrate that the institutionalized instruments during the Estado Novo (1937-45) played a relevant role for a new stage of leveraging of highways throughout the national territory, both on the symbolic level (values, ideas and advertising) and on the executive (construction and paving), embodied as a central element of the Plan of Goals.