Authors:

Lucas Nascimento Ferraz Costa and Mariele Troiano

Abstract:

This paper analyses the performance of two representative organizations of entrepreneurs and trade unionists during the constitutional process of 1987-88 from the institutionalist approach. These are, respectively, the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp) and the Inter-Parliamentary Advisory Department (Diap). Organizations that operated on issues related to their areas of interest in the Constituent Assembly, and which, through different strategies, achieved opposite outcomes, sometimes acting as a “centripetal organizer” of interests, sometimes as a “centrifugal organizer” of them. The research, based on minutes and diaries of the Constituent, demonstrates how the institutionalization of a representative organization is directly linked to the purposes of origin (path dependence).