The business interest groups of nineteenth-century Brazil were oligarchic institutions. Theoretically responsive to the majority of membership through democratic elections and other devices, the organizations were in effect guided by a small number of their wealthiest and most influential businessmen. However, the ordinary membership, with infrequent exceptions, accepted this domination.

Virtually all power in business interest groups was vested in the board of directors, whose numbers ranged from four, in the Commercial Agricultural Association of Pernambuco prior to 1880, to twenty-five in the Engineering Club. Commercial associations sat from five directors, in the Commercial Association of Amazonas before 1880, to as many as seventeen, in the Commercial Association of Rio de Janeiro from 1877 to 1883. The authority of a board of directors was neatly summed up by the 1883 statutes of the Rio organization: “The mandate of the directorate is ample and unlimited… with no reservations of powers.” Membership as a whole had few chances to challenge the authority of the board of directors. General assemblies were held no more than once or twice a year, whereas most boards met weekly or biweekly and would do so even more frequently if conditions warranted.

Theoretically, group membership could still exercise control through periodic election of the board. This was often true in theory only; elections for boards of directors were frequently contrived. The Commercial Association of Bahia, for example, customarily presented the general assembly of the membership with a slate (pauta) of candidates selected by the outgoing directorate.