O Jeitinho Brasileiro

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O Jeitinho Brasileiro

• Bethany Letalien
• October 11, 2002

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General Comments

• Please take what these authors have to say with a
  grain of salt broad brush strokes and disputed
  ideas
• For example, Brazil is not a nation with shallow
  pockets (Peck) it is a nation that is rich in
  many ways but has corruption and an extremely
  unequal distribution of wealth. Blaming poverty
  lets the elites off the hook.
• I do not intend to focus on the other
  shortcomings of these articles, but I would love
  discuss them.

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Vocabulary

• Jeito/jeitinho
• Você sabe com quem está falando?! (The weaker
  party to the action knows full well that society
  expects him to back away, Levine)
• Parentela (not parantela, Riel)
• Custo Brasil
• Despachante
• Malandragem/malandro
• Favela/favelado
• Coronel

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Freitas Brazilian Cultural Characteristics
(from Murphy)

• Hierarchy (patriarchy)
• Personalism (no clear notion of citizenship)
• Malandragem (jeitinho, mistrust of rules)
• Sensuality
• Adventurer (as described, this is tied up with
  classist and racist thought)

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Dar um jeitoQuotations from Levine

• Jeitos fall halfway between legitimate favors and
  out-and-out corruption, but at least in popular
  understanding they lean in the direction of the
  extralegal.
• Even if it is true that hapless peoples can
  benefit from jeitos, there must be an enormous
  difference in scale in comparison to the kind of
  arrangement or special favor a poised, educated,
  well-connected member of the affluent classes can
  manage.

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Dar um jeitoQuotations from Levine

• Jeitos, in the end, say more about the system
  that rationalizes their value than about the
  theories spun about them.
• Rationalizing the jeito as a flexible tool to
  expedite action from an obdurate system implies
  acceptance of the unfair advantages given to
  those who know how to bypass the system or to
  gain speedy treatment, especially when payoffs
  are involved.

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Everyone has a story or two

• Not getting a Resident Alien Card adventures
  with the Federal Police

Getting a checking account
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Two Books

• Barbosa, Lívia. (1992). O jeitinho brasileiro A
  arte de ser mais igual que os outros. Rio de
  Janeiro Editora Campus. (The Brazilian
  jeitinho The art of being more equal than
  others)
• Rega, Lourenço Stélio. (2000). Dando um jeito no
  jeitinho Como ser ético sem deixar de ser
  brasileiro. São Paulo Mundo Cristão. (How to be
  ethical without ceasing to be Brazilian, put out
  by a Christian publishing house)

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Brazil China

• Brazilians pride themselves on being especially
  creative in their array and variety of gambits
  suited for bending rules. Most of these ploys
  work best, of course, for those with connections,
  even as low-level as a friend of a relative who
  works in a certain office or department (Levine)
• Compare this to guanxi, which is acquired over a
  lifetime.

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For next time

• The extraordinary ability of illegal
  institutions to survive in symbiosis with the
  political and legal system . . . . undermined
  efforts to reform the system (Levine)
• To what extent does this continue to affect
  favelas, especially regarding the drug
  traffickers? Are the traffickers latter-day
  coronéis?
• What does the need to deal with both the
  government and the traffickers mean to people
  involved in NGOs or community projects?