Chapter 13 - Social Conflicts and Human Capital Accumulation in the Period of Search for National Identity

Abstract

This chapter shows there was a long-term improvement in the educational effort in Brazil between 1930 and 2014, although it was not constant over the years. There were many fluctuations, with more intense human capital building in some periods. Such differences are explained by changes in the equilibrium of political and ideological power among social classes. Particularly, the relative power of the poor social classes drove the enhancements in human capital building. As these classes form the majority of the population, their benefits from educational policies boosted Brazilian long-term development, reducing the human capital gap with benchmark countries, or at least avoiding its widening. Low class consciousness among the poorer classes was a major determinant of the insufficient investment in public education for Brazil to catch up with the benchmark countries. Ethnic diversity of these social classes was a major source of this.