Political Science in Brazil

past, present and future

Abstract

This article has two objectives. The first seeks to outline an overview of the formation and institutionalization of Brazilian Political Science as an academic and professional field. In order to account for its past and present, this analysis resorts to a literature review, seeking to understand the processes of constitution of this area throughout the 20th century, but also to describe, with data about the postgraduate programs available, how it has been giving its geographic expansion throughout the national territory and its thematic subareas, from the point of view of postgraduate education and research. The second objective is to identify aspects related to the slow pace of institutionalization in this area and think of action proposals for the future states of this field of knowledge. Among the main conclusions, it highlights what exogenous and endogenous elements had influenced the formation and institutionalization process of this area in Brazil, resulting in a discipline marked, on the one hand, by pluralism in the ways of doing political science and, on the other hand, in the establishment of organizations academic institutions that have been offering the main opportunities for the institutionalization of the area.