Latin American Political Sociologist To Offer Government Courses Here

Helio Jaguaribe, one of the most well-known of a growing circle of Brazilian political sociologists, is teaching here this spring as a visiting lecturer.

He will teach Government 113, a study of government and politics in developing Latin American countries, and a graduate seminar, Government 219.

Since receiving his law degree from the Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro in 1947, Jaguaribe has helped to found several Brazilian institutes for the study of economics, sociology, and politics.

"I consider myself a man of center-left political feelings. I would not say that I am admired by the present government," Jaguaribe commented yesterday. He described Brasil as a "rather discreet police state, somewhat like those of Franco and Salazar."

In 1959, while a member of the Higher Institute of Brazilian Studies, he published Nationalism in Brazilian Reality, which questioned the wisdom of complete nationalization of Brazil's petroleum resources. The book failed to please extremists on either the left or the right, and touched off a heated debate in the course of which Jaguaribe resigned from the Institute. The Institute was later abolished by the 1964 revolutionary forces because of alleged Marxist control.

No Political Consciousness

The most serious problem, according to Jaguaribe, is that the present Brazilian government wants to develop the country and still maintain class differences. "Sadly, they have little opposition due to a lack of political consciousness on the part of the Latin American masses," he said.

Since 1959, Jaguaribe served as president of a steel company of joint public and private ownership. The military coup of 1964 forced him to resign last June.

Jaguaribe was brought to Harvard by the Program for inter-American Studies through a grant from the Ford Foundation.