RIO GRANDE DO SUL: LEONEL BRIZOLA'S GOVERNMENT AND THE AGRARIAN QUESTION IN 1960'S

In the article we analyze the reformist land policy that was incipiently proposed and implemented in Rio Grande do Sul, during the Leonel Brizola's government (1959-1962). We focus on the creation decrees of IGRA and PRADE, which institutionalized and made possible the agrarian reform program of Brizola's government. That program has even expropriated two areas and created some rural settlements by the end of this government. Those legal devices have shaped the government's strategy of intervention in the agrarian problem, through a strategy designed mainly as an expansion of the state's structure. We take into account the national and international conjuncture in the issue's consideration. Although focused on the southern reality, the claims and expectations involved in this proposal exceeded the regional administration sphere. The southern experience can be considered as a test, a model of intervention that should subsidize the federal government in the formulation of an agrarian policy with national character.