This article offers readers a new understanding of success and failure of the so-called computer market reserve policy, calling their attention to nets, as well as social and technical interruptions and interference. Three models of freedom have been used in order to approach the principles of political organization within liberal and democratic tradition. Three social and technical developmental models stand out during the 1970's and 1980's: the specific characteristics of Brazilian professionals in computer science in the 1970's, the intervention of political police force during the dictatorship and microcomputers themselves. As the result of the combination of these elements, the present analysis has divided the period into two different phases. The first phase shows a strong relation - not always taken into account - between liberal democratic practice and the possibility of successful industrial and technological policies that simultaneously sought economic development and science and technology development in Brazil.
computers; industrial policy; democracy; authoritarianism; community
