[Neocorporatist arrangements and defense of physicians' interests]

In Brazil, the trade union structure created by authoritarian corporatism in the 1930's began to change when the cycle of the military regime installed in 1964 came to an end. With redemocratization, the trade union movement began to coexist with the organization of pluralistic interests, a process which has influenced the physicians' movement since 1977. The new National Constitution adopted in 1988 provided for multipartite control over health policy. We present a conceptual discussion of neocorporatist arrangements (which are common in European social experience) and their significance for an understanding of health policy in the context of the so called Health Reform process in Brazil.