The chapter elaborates on the existence of structural inequality roots in Brazilian society and their ultimate consequences on the sustainable development and the international projection of the country, mostly in its social and economic dimensions. It is an enlarged essay, aiming at an encompassing, ambitious synthesis. Structural roots have been addressed by many authors, mainly historians and sociologists, though Raymundo Faoro’s nowadays classic Os Donos do Poder (The power owners), 1984, is maybe the first to clearly outline a recurrent pattern in the different stages of the country’s history. Modern analyses of its reproductive characteristics show how inefficient partial measures to narrow the societal divide can be. Despite differences in some of the conclusions, and alternative ideological affiliations among the analysts, it is argued that a basic structure—mirrored in an elusively plastic, actually rigid political share of power—stands out of such visions. The synthesis provides a better understanding of the development paths actually chosen, the related lost opportunities, and on the whys of the worrying instability of some positive conquests. It also sheds light on specific technological choices and economic priorities, which cannot be dissociated from the interplay between the domestic and international contexts.