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Politics

The following article is a compilation of several articles related to the History of Brazil that have been published by the Brazilian government and that are available on online (sources: Brazil in Focus CD Rom).
These articles were prepared by Bolívar Lamounier, with the collaboration of Octávio Amorim Neto and José Luciano de Mattos Dias.

Federation

The Brazilian federation constituted, already in 1891, an old aspiration of the political elites as a form of accommodating and generating important economic and regional diversities. Consecrated in the first republican Constitution, in accordance with the North-American model, the federation, in practice, implied excessive autonomy of state governments, which rapidly consolidated themselves as political oligarchies. The dispute for federal resources became, in time, a conflict between states, which did not feel embarrassment in using federal forces, momentarily under their control, to oust enemies in control of other states. However, this arrangement would only be broken when a dissension reached the criteria for the occupation of the Presidency of the Republic. A coalition of state forces unsatisfied with the result of presidential elections was the main agent of the 1930 Revolution, which would suspend for over 15 years states' autonomies.

From 1946 on, and until today, the Brazilian federation is a controversial political-institutional aspiration, always having to face periodic cycles of concentration of attributions in the Presidency of the Republic. The 1988 Constitution destroyed the fiscal basis of Brazilian centralism, but from the political point of view, it is arguable that the federation had fixed itself on a stable model.

Constitutions

Brazil has had, since its independence, seven Constitutions, with the following promulgation years: 1824, 1891, 1934, 1937, 1946, 1967 and 1988.

1824: the constitutional monarchy established in Brazil, together with the censual vote and the creation of the moderating power as a political instrument of the monarch's interference in the government's formation and in the legislative process.

1891: the federalism and presidentship established in accordance to the North-American model, and strictly liberal formulation adopted, in terms of the definition of individual and social rights. The vote was, in principle, universal, but it excluded the illiterate population, and the bureaucratic impediments restricted the power of the universality principle.

1934: a Constitution which should re-democratise the country after the 1930 Revolution, the Charter of 34 is marked by the rupture with the liberal traditions in terms of social rights and the State's intervention in the economy.

1937: document which marks the implantation of the Estado Novo's authoritarian regime, under strong fascist inspiration. Its dispositions contained, however, an extensive roll of social and labour rights, within the corporatist conception.

1946: Constitution that inaugurates the first effectively democratic experience of Brazil's history, in establishing the legal basis of the bill of rights, and in conferring independence to the Legislative and Judiciary powers. It did, however, maintain some of the Estado Novo's distinctive traces, such as the corporatism.

1967: document via which the military regime initiated in 1964 tried to institutionalise itself. In it, is outstanding the concentration of powers in the hands of the Executive, even more aggravated by the Constitutional Amend nº 1, of 1969.

1988: this Charter established the legal parameters of the democratic regime initiated in 1985. It is innovative in its definitions of human and collective rights. It is marked by its extension and by the ridiculous character with which it establishes the social rights and regulates the economic order. It promotes a transfer of tributary revenues to the federation states without precedents in the country's history.

Presidents and Provisional Governments of the Republic

1) Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca (15/11/1889 - 25/02/1891)
Born in Alagoas, in 1827. Assumed the provisional government's leadership in the 15th of November, 1889, as the commander of the armed movement, from which the Republic's Proclamation resulted. He was elected president by the National Congress on the 25th of February, 1891.

2) Marshal Floriano Peixoto (23/11/1891 - 15/11/1894)
Born in Maceió (Alagoas), in 1839. As vice-president he exercised the presidency until the end of a four year term of office, authorised by the National Congress, following the resignation of the President, Deodoro da Fonseca.

3) Prudente de Moraes (15/11/1894 - 15/11/1898)
Born in Itú (São Paulo), in 1841. Directly elected.

4) Campos Sales (15/11/1898 - 15/11/1902)
Born in Campinas (São Paulo), in 1841. Directly elected.

5) Rodrigues Alves (15/11/1902 - 15/11/1906)
Born in Guaratingueta (São Paulo), in 1848. Directly elected.

6) Afonso Pena (15/11/1906 - 15/11/1909)
Born in Santa Bárbara (Minas Gerais), in 1847. Directly elected.

7) Nilo Peçanha (14/06/1909 - 15/11/1910)
Born in Campos (Rio de Janeiro), in 1867. As vice-president, he assumed the government due to President Afonso Pena's death.

8) Marshal Hermes da Fonseca (15/11/1910 - 15/11/1914)
Born in São Gabriel (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1855. Directly elected.

9) Venceslau Brás (15/11/1914 - 15/11/1918)
Born in São Caetano da Vargem Grande (Minas Gerais), in 1868. Directly elected.

10) Delfim Moreira (15/11/1918 - 28/07/1919)
Born in Cristina (Minas Gerais), in 1868. Directly elected vice-president. He substituted , in the Presidency, Rodrigues Alves, who, due to health problems, did not even assume power.

11) Epitácio Pessoa (28/07/1919 - 15/11/1922)
Born in Umbuzeiro (Paraíba), in 1865. Directly elected.

12) Artur Bernardes (15/11/1922 - 15711/1926)
Born in Viçosa (Minas Gerais), in 1875. Directly elected.

13) Washington Luís (15/11/1926 - 24/10/1930)
Born in Macaé (Rio de Janeiro), in 1869. Directly elected.

14) Provisional Government: General Menna Barreto, General Tasso Fragoso and Admiral Isaias de Noronha (24/10/1930 - 03/11/1930).
Menna Barreto, born in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1874; Tasso Fragoso, born in São Luís (Maranhão), in 1869; Isaías de Noronha, born in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), in 1873. This governing junta provisionally assumed power because the elected president, Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque, did not even take office, in face of the revolutionary movement's outbreak, on the 24th of October, 1930.

15) Getúlio Vargas (03/11/1930 - 29/10/1945)

16) José Linhares (29/10/1945 - 31/01/1946)
Born in Baturité (Ceará), in 1886. He assumed the presidency summoned by the Armed Forces, as president of the Federal Supreme Court, in face of Getúlio Vargas' overthrow.

17) Marshal Eurico Dutra (31/01/1946 - 31/01/1951)
Born in Cuiabá (Mato Grosso), in 1885. Directly elected.

18) Getúlio Vargas (31/01/1951 - 24/08/1954)

19) Café Filho (24/08/1954 - 08/11/1955)
Born in Natal (Rio Grande do Norte), in 1899. As vice-president, he assumed the Presidency due to Getúlio Vargas' death.

20) Carlos Luz (08/11/1955 - 11/11/1955)
Born in Três Corações (Minas Gerais), in 1894. As the Chamber of Deputies' president, he assumed the Presidency of the Republic due to Café Filho's infirmity, when he was overthrown.

21) Nereu Ramos (11/11/1955 - 31/01/1956)
Born in Lages (Santa Catarina), in 1888. As vice-president of the Federal Senate, he assumed the Presidency due to the impeachment of President Café Filho and the Chamber's president, Carlos Luz, according to deliberation of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

22) Juscelino Kubitschek (31/01/1956 - 31/01/1961)
Born in Diamantina (Minas Gerais), in 1902. Directly elected.

23) Jânio Quadros (31/01/1961 - 25/08/1961)
Born in Campo Grande (Mato Grosso), in 1917. Directly elected.

24) Ramieri Mazzilli (25/08/1961 - 08/09/1961)
Born in Caconde (São Paulo), in 1910. As president of the Chamber of Deputies, he assumed the Presidency due to Jânio Quadros' resignation and the absence of the vice-president, João Goulart, who was away in China.

25) João Goulart (08/09/1961 - 01/04/1964)
Born in São Borja (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1918. He was directly elected vice-president in 1960. He assumed the Presidency by imposition of the Constitutional Amendment nº 4, of the 22nd of September, 1961, which instituted the parliamentary system of government. He continued to exercise the presidency after the re-establishment of the presidential government system by the 6th of January of the 1963 plebiscite, until being overthrown by the March, 1964 Coup.

26) Provisional Government: Ranieri Mazzilli (02/04/1964 - 15/04/1964)
Born in Caconde (São Paulo), in 1910. As president of the Chamber of Deputies, he was summoned to assume the government's leadership by the National Congress, who announced the Presidency of the Republic's vacancy, following the victory of the military coup on the 31st of March, 1964.

27) Marshal Castelo Branco (15/04/1964 - 15/03/1967)
Born in Mecejana (Ceará), in 1900. Indirectly elected. His mandate was prorogued until the 15th of March, 1967.

28) General Costa e Silva (15/03/1967 - 31/08/1969)
Born in Taquari (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1902. Indirectly elected.

29) Provisional Government: Admiral Augusto Rademaker, General Lyra Tavares and Brigadier Marcio de Souza e Mello.
Admiral Rademaker was born in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), in 1905; General Lyra Tavares was born in João Pessoa (Paraíba), in 1905; Brigadier Souza e Mello was born in Florianópolis (Santa Catarina), in 1906. The military ministers assumed the government's leadership by force of the Institutional Act nº 12, during the impeachment for health reasons, of President Costa e Silva.

30) General Garrastazu Médici (30/10/1969 - 15/03/1974)
Born in Bagé (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1905. Indirectly elected.

31) General Ernesto Geisel (15/03/1974 - 15/03/1979)
Born in Bento Gonçalves (Rio Grande do Sul), in 1908. Indirectly elected.

32) João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo (15/03/1979 - 15/03/1985)
Born in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), in 1918. Indirectly elected.

33) Tancredo Neves
Born in São João del Rey (Minas Gerais), in 1910. Indirectly elected. He did not assume the power due to an infirmity, and he would die on the 21st of April, 1985.

34) José Sarney (15/03/1985 - 15/03/1990)
Born in Pinheiro (Maranhão), in 1930. Indirectly elected vice-president. He assumed the Presidency as vice-president until the 21st of April, 1985, due to the president's infirmity. From that date, due to President Tancredo Neves' death, he exercised the Presidency by succession.

35) Fernando Collor de Mello (15/03/1990 - 02/10/1992)
Born in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), in 1949. Directly elected.

36) Itamar Franco (02/10/1992 - 01/01/1995)
Born in Salvador (Bahia), in 1931. Directly elected vice-president. He exercised the Presidency as vice-president, between the 2nd of October and the 29th of December, 1992, the period during which the titular, Fernando Collor de Mello, had been removed from power by enforcement of the approval of an impeachment demand by the Chamber of Deputies.
Itamar Franco assumed the Presidency by succession, from the 29th of December, 1992, due to Fernando Collor's resignation.

37) Fernando Henrique Cardoso (01/01/1995 - 01/01/98)
Born in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro), in 1931. Directly elected.

38) Fernando Henrique Cardoso (elected on 01/01/99. His term of office ends on 01/01/2003)
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1931. Reelected by direct voting.

39) Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (01/01/2003 – His term of office ends on 01/01/2007)
Born in Garanhuns (Pernambuco) in 1945. Directly elected.

Political parties

During the Empire, two parties, the Conservative and the Liberal, were formed in the 1830s, and consolidated through the 1840s. They were both parties of national scope and had the same social sub-strata, that is, they represented rural proprietors. They differed, however, in terms of the organisation of the Brazilian State. Whilst the conservatives defended a higher centralisation, the liberals fought for greater provincial autonomy. Conservatives and Liberals alternated themselves as the majority party in parliament and the cabinet. This alternance, however, was more the fruit of regulatory intervention of the moderating power exercised by the monarch, than the product of the electorate's decisions.

With the exception of Rio Grande do Sul, where both currents prevailed, the federalist and the republican, the political parties of the First Republic constituted, in practice, a gathering of systems of unique state parties, supported in their absolute control of the states' elections by systematic fraud. Only in the 20's were there some parties organised by urban groups which had certain importance, such as the Democratic Party, in São Paulo, and the Communist Party, founded in March of 1922. However, the system remained untouched until it was brought down by the 1930 Revolution.

From 1930 to 1945, the Communist Party was the only party to be able to preserve, even under the Estado Novo's dictatorship, its organisation.

In 1945, with the fall of the Estado Novo, political parties of a national character were legally formed for the first time in the Republic's history. Three of them dominated the country's political arena between 1954 and 1964: the Democratic Social Party (Partido Social Democrático, PSD), National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional, UDN) and the Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB).

The PSD was always the biggest parliamentary party of the 1945-1964 period, as might be observed on the table. It occupied the presidency three times, with Eurico Dutra (1946 - 1951), Nereu Ramos (1955 - 1956) and Juscelino Kubitschek (1956 - 1961). Its organisational structure was constructed from the interventions of the "Estado Novo", with Getúlio Vargas having the dominant social-economic sectors of the country's localities. From an ideological point of view, it may be classified as a centre-right party.

The UDN was the second biggest parliamentary party during almost the whole of the 1945-1964 period, having lost this position only in 1962. It never got to occupy the presidency, but it endorsed the victorious candidature of Jânio Quadros, in 1960. Despite representing the same social sectors as the PSD, its foundation and action were marked by the opposition to Vargas and his legacy. Ideologically it was considered a right wing party.

The PTB, the third biggest parliamentary party until 1961, and the second biggest from 1962, inherited the union apparatus created by Vargas during the "Estado Novo", with Vargas having also participated in its foundation. It occupied the presidency twice, with Vargas (1951-1954) and João Goulart (1961-1964), and participated in the coalition of parties which gave parliamentary support to Juscelino Kubitschek. It represented the urban-industrial sectors of the country, and was ideologically positioned as a left wing party.

Other parties which had some relevance in the 1945-1964 period, despite being small, were: (1) the Christian Democratic Party, (2) the Liberator Party, (3) the Republican Party, (4) the Progressist Social Party and (5) the Brazilian Socialist Party.

The military regime, installed in 1964, dissolved all the party formations which functioned under the protection of the 1946 Constitution, by means of the Institutional Act nº 2, of 27 of October, 1965. The military, however, decided to keep the electoral calendar for legislative elections, with the objective of maintaining a façade of democratic legitimacy. Two parties were then created, the National Renovator Alliance (Aliança Renovadora Nacional, Arena) and the Brazilian Democratic Movement (Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB). The first would be the new government's official party and the second, the legal opposition to it. Arena and MDB disputed four elections for the Congress (1966, 1970, 1974 and 1978), with Arena having obtained a parliamentary majority in all of them. However, from 1974, the MDB started to achieve significant electoral gains, as shown in table.

In December 1979, the military regime ordered the extinction of Arena and MDB, with the aim to create a multi-party system which might weaken the opposition by dividing it. In the beginning of the 1980s, five new parties were established: (1) the Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrático, PDS), heir to the organisational structure of Arena; (2) the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, PMDB), the main heir to the extinct MDB; (3) the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), electoral branch of São Paulo's union movement; (4) the Democratic Labourist Party (Partido Democrático Trabalhista, PDT); (5) the Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB), the last two claiming the "Getulista" labourism's inheritance for themselves.

These parties disputed the 1982 elections for the National Congress and for the states' governments and legislative assemblies. The opposition parties (PMDB, PT, PDT and PTB) have managed to form a majority, although minute, in the Chamber of Deputies. The path to victory was thus opened for an opposition candidate in the presidential succession dispute, via the Electoral College, in January 1985. This victory was helped by dissidents within the PDS originating a new party, the Party of the Liberal Front (Partido da Frente Liberal, PFL). Formed in 1984, it was united to the opposition in order to defeat Paulo Salim Maluf's candidature, which in that context meant the military regime's continuity.

One of the civil regime's first acts was to establish, with the Constitutional Amendment nº 25, of 15th of May, 1985, the free creation of parties and the reorganisation of the ones previously cancelled, extinct, banned or refused. On August the 1st of that year, Congress approved Law nº 7332, which stipulated minimum conditions for the eligibility of new party associations. Thus, 25 new parties were created to fight the municipal elections of November 1985.

The new legislation has profoundly altered the Brazilian party situation. Since then, new parties were formed and became parliamentary represented at each new legislature. Since the 1986 elections for the Constituent Congress and for the governments and assemblies of states, there has been an erratic evolution of the electoral and parliamentary forces of the majority of the parties, marked by ascensions and brusque falls. Consequently, the high rates of electoral volatility and parliamentary fragmentation, which have characterised political competition in Brazil since 1985, not permitting the establishment of stable standards of interaction between the parties and between the parties and the electorate. Also worth remembering is that the increase in the number of parties with parliamentary representation and the variation in size of their benches are not only consequences of the electorate's decisions, but, also, of the intense migration of deputies from one party to another, during the same legislature.

Despite so much instability, it is possible to identify the most influential parties, at national, state or municipal levels, in the formation of the governments and the legislative process, during the last 11 years (table). At the centre of the ideological spectrum are the PMDB and the Party of the Brazilian Social-Democracy (Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB), the latter born from dissidents of the former, during the National Constituent Assembly, in 1988. The PMDB, although in clear decline since that date, has been the biggest parliamentary party of the civilian regime. It has occupied the presidency, with José Sarney, between 1985 and 1990, and the majority of the states' governments. The PSDB, fourth largest parliamentary party, is in a phase of ascendancy, especially since the election of one of its leaders, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, to the Presidency of the Republic, in October 1994.

On the right, stand out the PFL, PTB and PPB (Partido Popular Brasiliero, Brazilian Popular Party), the last one being the result of a fusion of the PPR (formed by ex-members of the PDS, which was extinguished) with the small PP (Partido Popular, Popular Party). Of the three, the PFL is the most influential, being the second largest parliamentary party since 1986, having participated in all ministries since 1985, and having elected many governors of state.

Finally, among the left wing parties, the PT and PDT are outstanding. The PT has grown from election to election, although at lower rates since 1990. It is the fifth largest parliamentary party and the main opposition party in the country, with a great influence over unions, intellectuals and the press. It arrived in second place in the 1989 and 1994 elections, with the same candidate, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva. The PDT achieved reasonable growth until 1990, but it has been in decline since. It has an important role in the politics of some states mostly in Rio de Janeiro and Rio Grande do Sul, as shown in the graphic.

Armed Forces

The Armed Forces' political role was significant (and for that, extremely controversial) since the last decades of the 19th century. Since the Paraguay War (1865 -1870), the Army became a relevant political player, with a direct and decisive role in the Proclamation of the Republic itself (1889). During the entire First Republic (1889 - 1930), isolated officials and different military factions interfered frequently in national politics. Their turbulence potential in this period was as strong or even stronger than in other Latin American countries, due to the inexistence, in Brazil, of political parties organised to a national level, which would counterbalance them. With the 1930 Revolution, and especially since the "Estado Novo" (1937 - 1945), the Armed Forces acquired an even clearer organisational identity.

It is certain that they were divided, to a certain extent, between a pro United States current, and another which sympathised with fascism, as well as between nationalist and internationalist conceptions in terms of development strategies. The divergence between "liberals" and "authoritarians" was emphasised during the War, especially after Brazil's entrance to the conflict, on the Allies' side, which included the dispatch of contingents of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) to combat in Italy. However, subjacent to these divergences, there was an important process of organisational consolidation taking place: from this period, the Armed Forces began to exercise a large influence over everything that was related to their own organisation and to the country's military policy, and even over wider political questions.

Internal divergences continued to exist in the post-war period, especially due to domestic repercussions of the "cold war" and the political conflict between "Getulistas" and "Antigetulistas" (the former having emerged with special virulence in the political-military crisis that preceded president Getúlio Vargas suicide, in August 1954). With the prolonged economic and political crisis which the country suffered in the beginning of the 60's, the Armed Forces finally intervened; they brought down president João Goulart and directly assumed the political control of the country.

For 21 years (from 31/03/1964 to 15/03/1985) all the presidents were military officers appointed by the high command of the Armed Forces and ratified by the Electoral College. The 1988 Constitution, in its article 142, says that the "Armed Forces, constituted by the Navy, the Army and the Air Force, are permanent and regular national institutions, organised with a basis of hierarchy and discipline, under the supreme authority of the President of the Republic, and are intended for the defence of the homeland, the guarantee of constitutional powers and, by initiative of these, of the law and order." This text attenuates, but does not modify, in essence, the Brazilian constitutional tradition, which admits a significant role for the Armed Forces in maintaining the internal order. In his book Rethinking the Military Politics (Princeton University Press, 1988, pg. 123), Alfred Stepan affirms that the "military prerogatives" are stronger in Brazil than in any other contemporary democracy. In his second term of office, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso merged the Army, Airforce and Navy ministries into one single ministry, the Defense Ministry, and appointed a civilian to lead the new ministry.

Democracy

In over a century of Republican system (from 1989 to this date), Brazil has experienced more than thirty years of democracy (1946-1964 and 1985 to the present date). From the institutional point of view, these two experiences have in common the following aspects: (1) presidential system, (2) bicameral system, (3) proportional representation with open lists, and (4) federalism. The three last aspects constitute mechanisms of dispersion of institutional power between a multiplicity of political players.

If, on one hand, such mechanisms have the virtue of making representation easier, in the decision making process, of the different political and social forces of a heterogeneous country like Brazil, on the other hand, they generate serious governing problems. Two serious problems are the absence of stable majorities in Congress to support the Executive, and the excessive proliferation of small political factions with power to veto modernising proposals which might hurt their particular interests. The presidency is, however, a mechanism which concentrates power. Due to this characteristic, the presidency emerges as a pole of co-ordination in the fragmentary Brazilian political system.

It is, however, important to emphasise that the current democratic regime represents an exacerbation of three of the above mentioned aspects, in relation to the 1946-1964 period, since (1) the 1988 Constitution has strengthened the presidency by means of so-called provisory measures, which gives the Executive's leader a power without contrast in the definition of the country's legislative agenda; (2) the electoral laws have much favoured the proliferation of parties with parliamentary representation; (3) the 1988 Charter has transferred an important share of power to the states and municipalities.

The way in which the presidency and proportional representation are combined make the Brazilian institutional system singular. From the constitutional point of view, no presidency, within democratic presidential regimes, is as powerful as the Brazilian, and the Legislative power, in turn, is today the most fragmented in the world.

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