ESHET Conference 2019 University of Lille Money, banks and finance in economic thought Working Paper Between law-making and policymaking: Rui Barbosa and the international dissemination of economics in the turn of the 20th century1 Luiz Felipe Bruzzi Curi Cedeplar/UFMG,
[email protected] Alexandre Mendes Cunha Cedeplar/UFMG,
[email protected] 1. Introduction As its first Finance Minister and as one of the jurists responsible for drafting its first constitution, Rui Barbosa (1849-1923) was one of the founding fathers of the Brazilian republic. He received his legal education and started his successful career as a lawyer in imperial Brazil, having adhered to republicanism shortly before Emperor Pedro II was dethroned by a military coup in November 1889. While he reached a widespread, positive reputation as a jurist and publicist, Barbosa experienced frustrations as a policymaker and as a politician in general. He ran for president four times between 1910 and 1919, having lost all the elections, which were held within an oligarchic system in which Rui Barbosa was an ambiguous figure. On the one hand, he was a member of the ruling elite, in that he was a deputy in the Empire, a minister in the first republican cabinet and, from his resignation until his final days, a senator of the republic. On the other hand, Barbosa failed to become a true achiever in the realm of politics. In addition to his frustrated presidential ambitions, he had to deal with the bad reputation he acquired as a policymaker: he became associated with the financial crisis that burst during his ministerial term (1889-1891).