Rui Barbosa and the patron-client relation

In a discussion of the patron-client relation within Brazilian politics, th e article takes as an example political favors asked of Rui Barbosa when he was the provisional government's Minister of the Treasury. It endeavors to demonstrate how the prevalence of patron-client values and practices carri ed over from the monarchy to the Republic. The argument is posed that patro nage, from which the patron-client relation derives, was deeply embedded in Brazilian society and from there moved into politics. As a consequence, eg alitarian values and the notion of res publica, which in thesis should have been an integral part of the new regime's practices, did not find propitio us ground upon which to develop. Citizens became "doctor cidadao", while po liticians became "cousin and friend".