The Metropolitan Political Entrepreneur

A Weberian comparison between Parnamirim and São Gonçalo do Amarante

Abstract

This text compares Agnelo Alves e Jaime Calado as political leaders, taking into account their rise to power in the municipalities of Parnamirim and São Gonçalo do Amarante, respectively, in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. In order to understand the effects of the leadership of both men, the article draws on the reflections of Max Weber about the modern economic enterprise and its analogy with the electoral political enterprise. The work proposes the concept of a metropolitan political entrepreneur, a theoretical persona who apprehends the increasing importance of metropolization and acts on it. The concept is thought out as an ideal type which aids causal analysis concerning the concrete political actors amidst family ties and state elites’ support. My analysis of the career of the two politicians reveals several points in common and transformative effects of their operation in the patterns of electoral competition in the two municipalities, which are part of the Greater Natal. Specifically, traditional elites were decisively weakened in both cases.