Overview

Since 1943, the lives of Brazilian working people and their employers have been governed by the Consolidation of Labor Laws (CLT). Seen as the end of an exclusively repressive approach, the CLT was long hailed as one of the world's most advanced bodies of social legislation. In Drowning in Laws, John D. French examines the juridical origins of the CLT and the role it played in the cultural and political formation of the Brazilian working class. Focusing on the relatively open political era known as the Populist Republic of 1945 to 1964, French illustrates the glaring contrast between the generosity of the CLT's legal promises and the meager justice meted out in workplaces, government ministries, and labor courts. He argues that the law, from the outset, was more an ideal than a set of enforceable regulations - there was no intention on the part of leaders and bureaucrats to actually practice what was promised, yet workers seized on the CLT's utopian premises while attacking its systemic flaws. In the end, French says, the labor laws became """"real"""" in the workplace only to the extent that workers struggled to turn the imaginary ideal into reality.

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Reviews

Offers readers a fresh perspective. -- Luso-Brazilian Review

French analyzes the effects of legislation in Brazil in 1943 that has been hailed as remarkably advanced social and labor legislation. He illustrates the glaring contrast between the generosity of the law's promises and what it actually delivered. Offers readers a fresh perspective. -- Luso-Brazilian Review A monograph that will interest scholars of both labor and legal history in Brazil and Latin America. . . . An intriguing analysis. -- American Historical Review

Offers readers a fresh perspective. <br> -- Luso-Brazilian Review

Author Information

John D. French is associate professor of history at Duke University and author of The Brazilian Worker's ABC: Class Conflict and Alliances in Modern Sao Paulo.

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