This study aims to demonstrate that there are two simultanenous processes in Brazil, in 1990s and 2000s, (the civilizational one and and the decivilizational one), which are sometimes parallel, sometimes intersecting. This coexistence is not new, since processes with both dimensions can be seen all along the twentieth century. However, they have specificities in each historical juncture; thus, the defining elements of the civilizational and de-civilizational simultaneity in the 1990's and in the threshold of the 21st century have characteristics that can only be understood based on the democratic advances and setbacks experienced by the country since the second half of the 1980's. The struggle against slave labor in Brazil can be considered as part of a civilizational process because it contains efforts that seek to enforce laws hindering all forms of degrading work. Every action that derails the struggle against the latter is considered de-civilizational.
civilizational; de-civilizational; politics; government; state; democracy