Abstract
This study is based on a biographical methodology and aims to analyze the social origin, history, ascension strategies, and inherited or acquired social resources of Luiz Simões Lopes. The research observes the respective principles of legitimation of Luiz Simões Lopes, a man trusted by Getúlio Vargas in the direction of the Administrative Department of Public Service (Dasp) during the Brazilian period called Estado Novo (New State). Given the hypothesis of a peripheral condition of Brazilian society and, consequently, the absence of social structures in which the professional title is the main criterion of social hierarchy, this article explains the conditions that led Simões Lopes to be part of a ruling elite that imported models and principles from the North American scientific administration. The conclusion is that, due to the existing roots of personal domination in Brazil, the new rational-formal resources were established in the political struggles for Brazilian state control.
Keywords:
Luiz Simões Lopes; ruling classes; Vargas Era