This article discusses the determinants of the affirmation of congressmen, which cannot be disassociated from the realms of political power and cultural production in Brazil. In order to apprehend the logics and practices that preside over the occupations over varied and relatively well allocated positions in Parliament, universities, state bureaucracies, media, intellectual legitimation spaces and arenas in which political issues are formulated, the authors focus on the study the exemplary trajectories of Afonso Arinos and Delfim Netto. The trajectories and positions occupied by these figures are examined in light of historical conjunctures, the reconfiguration of power relations (at the national and international levels) and the transformations in the domains of university education and cultural mediation. The redefinitions and amalgamations of legitimate repertoires of interventions (erudition and technical knowledge) mobilized in the main debates concerning the nation in the twentieth century are considered. This, in turn, allows for, on one hand, the identification of processes, spaces, competences and languages that are concurrent, complementary and interdependent, and, on the other one, reflect upon the elaboration of representation of culture, politics, the economy and the State.
elites; intellectuals; politics; trajectories; culture