Politics of Brazil

Politics of Brazil takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Brazil is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Congress. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Brazil is divided in 26 states and a federal district.

Short political history

Throughout its history, Brazil has struggled to build a democratic and egalitarian society, despite its origins as a plantation colony and the strong influence of slavery.

Old Republic

Main article: Café com leite

In 1889, marshal Deodoro da Fonseca declared the republic, by a coup d'état. Until 1930, Brazilian republic was formally a democracy, although the power was concentrated in the hands of powerful land owners.

Vargas Years

Main article: Getúlio Vargas

Main article: Estado Novo (Brazil)

In 1930, a bloodless revolution led Getúlio Vargas to power. For about 15 years he controlled the country's politics, with a brief three-year constitutional interregnum from 1934-1937 a longer, heavier regime (Estado Novo) which had loose ties with European fascism.

Populist Years

Like most of Latin America, Brazil experienced times of political instability after the Second World War. When Vargas was ousted from the presidency in another bloodless coup d'état, in 1945, a new and modern constitution was passed and the country had its first experience with an effective and wide-spread democracy, but the mounting tension between populist politicians (like Vargas himself and, later, Janio Quadros) and the right led to a crisis that ultimately brought up the military coup d'état in 1964, now known to have been supported by the CIA.

Military Dictatorship

Between 1964 and 1985, Brazil was governed by the military in alliance with conservative sectors of the civilian economic and social elite. In contrast to other bureaucratic authoritarian regimes in the region, Brazil’s rulers maintained elections but reorganised the party system by reducing their total number to two: a pro-regime party and another which acted as a magnet to dissidents.

New Brazil (1985-1990)

In 1985, the military were defeated in an election which followed the sae scheme thay builded, and the results were a surprise. Opposition´s candidate, Tancredo Neves was elected for President, but he did not took office due to his death by natural causes. His vice-president, Jose Sarney ruled the country from 1985 to 1990, and faced a terible economic crisis which almost led him to leave presidency due to stress and desperation. Sarney led the "democratization" efforts and ultimately held elections which folloed the rules o the new 1988 democratic Constitution.

Collor government (1990-1992)

In 1990, Fernando Collor de Mello became president, elected in a true democratic election. After only 2 years in power, hi nam was involved in a series of corruption scandals. This led the people to such a level of anger that young students took the streets demanding his impeachment. Collor was finally accused of corruption, renounced presidency and lost his political rights for 8 years. (In 2006, Collor was found to be innocent and elected Senator by the Alagoas state). Despite all the political turbulence, Collor passed some impotant laws and dismantled the old isolationist trade politics which were reminiscent of the military period.

Itamar government (1992-1994)

In 1992, the vice-president Itamar Franco took office as president and managed to evade the most feared consequences of Collor´s downfall. He had to facea country with hyper-inflation, high levels of misery and unployment, and the far-leftist organizations trying to lead the people, who were mobilized in the anti-Collor campaign to a wider revolutionary fight in an attemp to overthrow the entire regime. Itamar finally granted full powers to his Minister of Economy, Fernando Henrique Cardoso so the minister could launch the Plano Real, a new economic plan which seemed to be just the same as the many unsuccessful plan launched by Sarney, Collor and their military predecessor. But the Real was a success, and terminated inflation in a few months.

Cardoso government (1995-2003)

Main article: Fernando Henrique Cardoso

In 1994, Cardoso launched his Plano Real, a successful economic reform that managed to permanently get the country rid of the excessive inflation that had plagued it for more than forty years. The plan consisted in replacing the discredited old currency (cruzeiro and cruzeiro real) and pegging its value temporarily to the United States dollar. Inflation – which had become a fact of Brazilian life – was cut dramatically, a change that the Brazilians took years to get used to. Because of the success of Plano Real Cardoso was chosen by his party to run for president and, with the strong support given of Franco, eventually won, beating Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, who had been appointed as the favorite only one year before.

Cardoso's term was marked by other major changes in Brazilian politics and economy. Public services and state-owned companies were privatized (some for values supposedly too cheap according to his adversaries), the strong real made it easy to import goods, forcing Brazilian industry to modernize and compete (which had the side effect of causing many of them to be bought by foreign companies). During his first term, a constitutional amendment was passed to enable a sitting Executive chief to run for re-election, after which he again beat Lula in 1998.

Lula government (2003-Present)

Main article: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

In 2002, on his fourth try, Lula was elected president. In part his victory was derived from the considerable unpopularity of Cardoso's second term, which failed to decrease the economic inequality, and in part from a softening of his and the party's radical stance, including a vice-presidential candidate from the Liberal Party (Brazil), acceptance of an IMF accord agreed to by the previous government and a line of discourse friendly to the markets.

Despite some achievements on solving part of the country's biggest problems, his term was plagued by multiple corruption scandals that stormed his cabinet, forcing some members to resign their posts.

In 2006 Lula regained part of his popularity and ran for re-election. After almost winning on the first round, he won the run-off against Geraldo Alckmin from PSDB, by a 20 million votes margin.

Constitution

Main article: Constitution of Brazil

Brazil has had seven constitutions:

• Constitution of 1824 – the first Brazilian constitution, enacted by Dom Pedro I. It was monarchic, hereditary and highly centralized, permitting the vote only to property-holders.
• Constitution of 1891 – the republic was proclaimed in 1889, but a new constitution was not promulgated until 1891. This federalist, democratic constitution was heavily influenced by the U.S. model. However, women and illiterates were not permitted to vote.
• Constitution of 1934 – when Getúlio Vargas came to power in 1930, he canceled the 1891 constitution and did not permit a new one until 1934. The Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 forced Vargas to enact a new democratic constitution that permitted women's suffrage. Getúlio Vargas was elected president by the Constitutional Assembly to a four-year term, beginning in 1933.
• Constitution of 1937 – Getúlio Vargas suppressed a Communist uprising in 1935 and used it as a pretext to establish autocratic rule. He instituted a corporatist constitution nicknamed the polish, written by Francisco Campos.
• Constitution of 1946 – after a military coup ousted dictatorial Getúlio Vargas, an Assembly wrote a democratic constitution.
• Constitution of 1967 – after the 1964 coup d'État against João Goulart, the military dictatorship passed the Institutional Acts, a supraconstitutional law. This strongly undemocratic constitution simply incorporated these Acts.
• Constitution of 1988 – the progressive redemocratization culminated in the current constitution. Very democratic, it is more expansive than a normal constitution – many statutory acts in other countries are written into this constitution, like Social Security and taxes.

Executive branch

Main office-holders

Office	Name	Party	Since
President	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	Worker's Party	1 January 2003
Vice-President	José Alencar Gomes da Silva	elected by the Liberal Party, now in the Brazilian Republican Party	1 January 2003

The 1988 constitution grants broad powers to the federal government, made up of executive, legislative, and judicial branches. The president holds office for four years, with the right to re-election for an additional four-year term, and appoints his own cabinet.

Legislative branch

Main article: National Congress of Brazil

National Congress of Brazil.

The bicameral National Congress or Congresso Nacional consists of the Federal Senate or Senado Federal (81 seats; three members from each state or federal district elected according to the principle of majority to serve eight-year terms; one-third elected after a four year period, two-thirds elected after the next four-year period) and the Chamber of Deputies or Câmara dos Deputados (513 seats; deputies are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms).

The seats are allotted proportionally to each state's population, but each state is eligible for a minimum of eight seats and a maximum of 70 seats. The result is a system weighted in favor of smaller states.

Fifteen political parties are represented in Congress. Since it is common for politicians to switch parties, the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes regularly.

Political parties and elections

Main article: List of political parties in Brazil

For other political parties, see List of political parties in Brazil. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Brazil.

States and municipalities

Main article: States of Brazil

Brazil is divided into two types of subnational units: States and Municipalities.

States

Brazilian states are semi-autonomous self-governing entities organized with complete administration branches, relative financial independence and their own set of symbols, similar to those owned by the nation itself. Despite their relative autonomy they all have the same model of administration, as set by the Constitution. The states are:

• Acre
• Alagoas
• Amapá
• Amazonas
• Bahia
• Ceará
• Distrito Federal*
• Espírito Santo
• Goiás
• Maranhão
• Mato Grosso
• Mato Grosso do Sul
• Minas Gerais
• Pará
• Paraíba
• Paraná
• Pernambuco
• Piauí
• Rio de Janeiro
• Rio Grande do Norte
• Rio Grande do Sul
• Rondônia
• Roraima
• Santa Catarina
• São Paulo
• Sergipe
• Tocantins.

States hold elections every four years and exercise a considerable amount of power, since the 1988 constitution -- besides allowing them to keep their own taxes -- mandated regular allocation of a share of the taxes collected locally by the federal government.

The Executive is held by the Governador (Governor) and his appointed Secretários (Secretaries); the Legislative is held by the Assembléia Legislativa (Legislative Assembly); and the Judiciary, by the Tribunal de Justiça (Law Court). The governors and the members of the assemblies are elected, but the members of the Judiciary are appointed by the governor from a list provided by the current members of the State Law Court containing only judges (these are chosen by merit in exams open to anyone with a Law degree). The name chosen by the governor must be approved by the Assembly before inauguration. Since the 1988 Constitution this is the greatest amount of autonomy the states have been granted since the Old Republic.

Each of the 27 governors must achieve more than 50 per cent of the vote, including a second round run-off between the top two candidates if necessary. In contrast to the federal level, state legislatures are unicameral, although the deputies are elected through similar means, involving an open-list system in which the state serves as one constituency. State level elections occur at the same time as those to the president and Congress. In 2002 candidates from eight different parties won the gubernatorial contest while 28 parties are represented in the country’s state legislatures. The next set of elections will take place in 2006.

The most important Brazilian states (in terms of population and economic power) are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, Bahia, Pernambuco and Pará.

Municipalities

Main article: Municipalities of Brazil

Brazil has no clear distinction between towns and cities (in effect, the Portuguese word cidade means both). The only possible difference is regarding the municipalities which have a Law Court and those who have not. The first are called Sedes de Comarca (Comarca being the territory under the rule of that specific Court). Other than this, only size and importance differs one from another.

The Municipality (Município) is a territory comprising one urban area, the sede (seat), from which it takes the name, and several other minor urban or rural areas, the distritos. The seat of a municipality must be the most populous urban area within it; when another urban area grows too much it usually splits from the original municipality to form another one.

A Municipality is relatively autonomous: it is allowed to have its own constitution which is called organic law(Lei Organica), to collect taxes and fees, to maintain a municipal police force (albeit with very restricted powers), to pass laws on any matter that does not contradict either the state or the national constitution and to imperson itself with symbols (like a flag, an anthem and a coat-of-arms). However, not all municipalities exercise the entirety of this autonomy. For instance, only a few municipalities keep local police forces, some of them do not collect some taxes (to attract investors or residents) and many of them do not have a flag (although they are all required to have a coat-of-arms).

Municipalities are governed by an elected prefeito Mayor and an unicameral Câmara de Vereadores (Councilors Chamber). In municipalities with more than 200,000 inhabitants, the Mayor must be elected by more than 50% of the valid vote. The executive power is called Prefeitura.

Brazilian municipalities can vary widely in area and population. The municipality of Altamira, Brazil, in the State of Pará is larger than most countries of the world. Several Brazilian municipalities are over 1,000,000 inhabitants.

Until 1974 Brazil had one state-level municipality, the State of Guanabara, now merged with Rio de Janeiro, which comprised the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The Federal District is an anomalous unit of the federation, as it is not organized the same manner as a municipality, does not possess the same autonomy as a state (but is ranked among them) and is closely related to the central power.

It is considered a single municipality, divided into the seat (Brasilia itself) and some urban districts (the so-called Satellite Cities). Satellite cities are created (in right) and governed directly by the governor of the federal district and possess no true identity.

Judicial branch

Main article: Justice in Brazil

Brazilian jurisdiction courts function under civil law and adversarial system. The Judicial Branch are organized in states' and federal systems with different jurisdictions.

The judges of the courts of first instance take office after public competitive examination. The second instance judges are promoted among the first instance judges. The Justices of the superior courts are appointed by the president for life and approved by the Senate. All the judges and justices must be graduated in law. Any Brazilian judge is compulsory retired at the age of 70.

States' judicial branch

The country is divided into judicial districts named comarcas, which are composed of one or more cities. Each comarca has at least one court of first instance. There are specialized courts of first instance for family litigation or bankruptcy in some cities and states. Judgments from theses district courts can be the subject of judicial review following appeals to the courts of second instance.

Judgments of courts of first instance are usually made by only one judge. The Brazilian judiciary system uses jury trials only for judging crimes against the person.

In all Brazilian states, there is one court of second instance, named the Justice Tribunal (Tribunal de Justiça in Portuguese). Some states, as São Paulo and Minas Gerais, used to have Courts of Appeals (Tribunal de Alçada in Portuguese) too, but with different jurisdictions. The highest court of a state is the Justice Tribunal.

Second instance judgments are usually made by three judges, who, in the Justice Tribunals, are named desembargadores.

Federal judicial branch

The national territory is divided into five Regions, which are composed by one or more states. Each region is divided in Judiciary Sections (Seções Judiciárias in Portuguese) with a territory that may not correspond to the states' comarcas.

The Judiciary Sections has federal courts of first instance and each Region has a Federal Regional Tribunal (Tribunal Regional Federal in Portuguese) as a court of second instance.

There is a special federal court system for labor litigations called Labor Justice (Justiça do Trabalho in Portuguese) with its own courts.

Superior Courts

There are two national superior courts that grant writs of certiorari in civil and criminal cases: the Superior Justice Tribunal (Superior Tribunal de Justiça in Portuguese, shorthand STJ) and the Brazilian superior court, called the Supreme Federal Tribunal (Supremo Tribunal Federal in Portuguese, shorthand STF).

The STJ grants a Special Appeal (Recurso Especial in Portuguese) when a judgement of a court of second instance offends a federal statute disposition or when two or more second instance courts make different rulings on the same federal statute. There are parallel courts for labor law, electoral law and military law.

The STF grants Extraordinary Appeals (Recurso Extraordinário in Portuguese) when judgements of second instance courts violate the constitution. The STF is the last instance for the writ of habeas corpus and for reviews of judgments from the STJ.

The superior courts do not analyze any factual questions in their judgments, but only the application of the law and the constitution. Facts and evidences are judged by the courts of second instance, except in specific cases such as writs of habeas corpus.

Political pressure groups and leaders

Left wing of the Catholic Church, Landless Worker's Movement, and labor unions pressure the government for more intense reforms on taxation and land property, while rightist PFL and PSDB are critical of government's social and economic policies.

International organization participation

African Development Bank, Customs Cooperation Council, United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Food and Agriculture Organization, Group of 11, Group of 15, Group of 19, Group of 24, Group of 77, Inter-American Development Bank, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), International Civil Aviation Organization, International Chamber of Commerce, International Criminal Court, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, International Development Association, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Finance Corporation, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Hydrographic Organization, International Labour Organization, International Monetary Fund, International Maritime Organization, Inmarsat, International Telecommunications Satellite Organization, Interpol, International Olympic Committee, International Organization for Migration (observer), International Organization for Standardization, International Telecommunication Union, International Trade Union Confederation, Latin American Economic System, Asociación Latinoamericana de Integración, Mercosur, Nonaligned Movement (observer), Nuclear Suppliers Group, Organization of American States, Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Rio Group, United Nations, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka, United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, United Nations University, Universal Postal Union, World Federation of Trade Unions, World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Meteorological Organization, World Tourism Organization, World Trade Organization

See also

• Brazil
• Brazilian General Elections, 2006
• Café com leite
• Coronelismo
• History of Brazil
• Integralism
• Regional Electoral Court (Brazil)
• Supreme Electoral Court (Brazil)

External links

• brazilianpolitics.com