This chapter lays out a brief conceptual dynamic to interpret the past fifty years in Brazil. Its framework rests on tying together the key concepts of windows of opportunity, beliefs, dominant network, leadership, institutions, and outcomes. The chapter argues that it is the dynamics of the concepts that led to institutional change in Brazil and in turn a new trajectory. It then discusses the important dominant networks in power, along with their beliefs, in four periods: 1964–1984 (the military years); 1985–1993 (the early years back to democracy); 1993–2002 (Fernando Henrique Cardoso's presidency); and 2002–2014 (the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff years).