{"id":17327,"date":"2024-05-08T22:03:36","date_gmt":"2024-05-09T01:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fundacaofhc.org.br\/acervo\/fernando-henrique-cardoso-biografia\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T12:17:14","slug":"fernando-henrique-cardoso-biography","status":"publish","type":"acervo","link":"https:\/\/fundacaofhc.org.br\/en\/acervo\/fernando-henrique-cardoso-biography\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Henrique Cardoso: Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Biography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fernando Henrique Cardoso was born on June 18, 1931, in Rio de Janeiro, into a family with a strong military presence. His paternal grandfather and his father were generals, and several of his relatives held prominent positions in the Armed Forces and the government between the 1930s and 1950s. He moved with his family to S\u00e3o Paulo while still a child. In 1953, he married Ruth Corr\u00eaa Leite Cardoso (1930\u20132008), with whom he had three children. In his academic career, FHC taught at institutions such as the Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of California, \u00c9cole des Hautes \u00c9tudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Cambridge, Universit\u00e9 Paris-Nanterre, and the Universidad de Chile. He received 31 honorary doctorates, produced over a hundred academic articles and research papers, authored more than 40 books, and received hundreds of national and international awards and honors. In public life, he served as a senator, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Finance, and President of the Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\nFernando Henrique Cardoso’s complete Curriculum-vitae<\/em><\/a>\n\n\n\nFernando Henrique Cardoso’s complete bibliography<\/a>\n\n\n

With a degree in Sociology from the Universidade de S\u00e3o Paulo (USP), where he became a professor in 1953, Fernando Henrique Cardoso faced threats following the 1964 coup and decided to go into exile with his family in Chile and France. In Santiago, he worked at the Comiss\u00e3o Econ\u00f4mica para a Am\u00e9rica Latina e o Caribe (CEPAL) and taught at academic institutions. During this period, he developed, in partnership with sociologist Enzo Faletto, the Theory of Dependency, which resulted in the work \u2018Dependency and Development in Latin America: An Essay in Sociological Interpretation\u2019. In France, between mid-1967 and July 1968, he was a professor at the Universit\u00e9 Paris-Nanterre and closely followed the events of May 1968, a movement of student protests and large-scale workers\u2019 strikes that triggered a political and social crisis in the country. Also in 1968, he returned to Brazil and, through a public competitive examination, assumed the chair of Political Science at USP. However, in 1969, at the age of 38, he was forcibly retired and had his political rights revoked by Institutional Act No. 5 imposed by the military regime. That same year, he helped found the Centro Brasileiro de An\u00e1lise e Planejamento (Cebrap) \u2014 an important hub for research and reflection on Brazilian society \u2014 where he maintained an intense intellectual output, producing studies on development, the state, and democratization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fernando Henrique\u2019s parliamentary career began in 1978. At the time, he was already a recognized intellectual and political activist, though he still lacked experience in electoral contests. He entered the campaign primarily as a symbolic gesture, rather than with any concrete expectation of victory. He received the second-highest number of votes and became the alternate for Senator Franco Montoro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1983, he took his seat in the Federal Senate after the election of then-Senator Franco Montoro to the governorship of S\u00e3o Paulo. In 1984, amid the democratic transition, he participated in the Diretas J\u00e1 campaign and helped coordinate the ticket of Tancredo Neves and Jos\u00e9 Sarney for the Planalto Palace. During the Sarney administration, he assumed the leadership role for the government in the Senate, where he spearheaded reforms for the country\u2019s redemocratization. In 1986, FHC was reelected senator for S\u00e3o Paulo, and between 1987 and 1988, he served as one of the rapporteurs for the National Constituent Assembly. In late 1988, he was one of the founders of the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB), alongside M\u00e1rio Covas, Franco Montoro, Jos\u00e9 Serra, and other political leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n