Taking as a reference the process of transition towards democracy in Brazil the author puts to task the political analyses that, by centering on politico-institutional features, fail to concede to the State its properly relevant analytical role. His main point is that one cannot adequately understand the crisis of the military regime, the following political democratization, the changes in economic policies after 1985 and the present difficulties for the country to resume the path of development without taking into account the (yet unsolved) crisis of the developmental ("desenvolvimentista") State.