Comparative Politics
Brazil

Geography
Largest country in Latin America
bigger than the contiguous US

Huge coastline; rainforest; Amazonia

 

Natural Resources
Diamonds, gold, minerals
Rain forest products (rare hardwoods, plants with medicinal purposes, tourism) – rain forests in SA and Afr generate $8bln in exports a year
Amazon River (tourism) 

Environmental problem:  deforestation – export of rainforest woods, plants, and clear-cutting to give land to peasants

Often burned – contributes to ozone depletion and green house gas emissions

Other important crop:  Coffee (world’s largest producer)
 

People



Population: 186,112,794

Median Age: 27.81 years

Population Growth Rate: 1.06%

Birth Rate:16.83 births/1,000 population

Life Expectancy at Birth: total population: 71.69 years
                                                  male: 67.74 years
                                                  female: 75.85 years
Ethnic Groups:
white 53.7%
mulatto (mixed white and black) 38.5%
black 6.2%
other (includes Japanese, Arab, Amerindian) 0.9%
unspecified 0.7%

Story on Race, Unemployment & Politics in Brazil

Religions: Roman Catholic (nominal) 73.6%
Protestant 15.4%
Spriritualist 1.3%
Bantu/voodoo 0.3%
other 1.8%
unspecified 0.2%
none 7.4%

Languages: Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write
                   total population: 86.4%
                   male: 86.1%
                   female: 86.6%

Patterns of Political and Economic Development
Colonial control of Brazil reflected the power struggles of Europe 15th-19th centuries

Portugal’s presence in Brazil dates back to the middle of the 15th Century but first Portuguese settlement 1530;

(Portugal taken over by Spain and then Holland, so Dutch East India Co. effectively controlled Brazil first half of 17th Century)

Settlement explodes when gold discovered in 1695 and diamonds discovered in 1729

The Catholic Church in Portugal was poorer and, therefore, less of influence than in Spanish colonies

Much more the “wild west” prospecting, mining kind of development that went on in the Western US

How did the Portuguese keep control over Brazil with the Spanish all around them?  Britain helped protect Brazil in exchange for trade privileges

Napoleon invaded Portugal in 1807 causing Portuguese royal family to flea to Brazil;

Colonial infrastructure (schools, libraries, newspapers, banks) becomes much more developed during their exile;

King returns in 1982 but son, Prince Pedro, stays behind, declares himself Emperor of Brazil, 22 Oct 1822

Pedro rules until loses war with Argentina 1831
abdicates in favor of his five-year old son
regencies til son is 14, crowned Pedro II

First Republic
Nov 1889
Consitution written by Ruy Barbosa patterned after US, federal

Civilian rule, Golden Age of the 1st Repub over turn-of-the-century

1922 – rebellion among young army officers;

1924 another army revolt, then martial law;

Republic collapses in 1930 (a casualty of the Great Depression and power struggles among politicians/military)

1930 Revolution

1945 Estado Novo
Getulio Vargas 
Builds a “corporatist” state ruling in the interests of business, labor, landowners, bureaucrats

(in other words, everyone! A national front type of popular dictatorship

Suspended Constitution in 1937 – parties banned, media censored

After WWII
Brazilian generals carry out successful coup d’etat;
establish democratic republic (note the means!!)
lasts til 1964

Pres Juscelino Kubitschek (1955-1960) industrialization
Self sufficient in auto production, international airline
Developed interior capital, Brasilia (spendy-foreign debt-inflation)


Politics in Modern Brazil
Alternating periods of civilian and military rule
1964 military coup – military rule last two decades
torture, death squads used to liquidate leftists

1964- Early 70s – economic miracle; growth > 10% yr until oil crisis 1973;

Military rule lasts until the military “bows out quietly” in 1985 – civilian president elected
brasilia
Brasilia

Political Institutions: Presidential System
Federal, presidential with checks and balances
Presidency somewhat stronger than US (e.g. decree powers, can force congress to consider bills right away, can veto pieces of legislation like a “line-item veto”)
Elected by absolute majority (run-off if not one gets 50%)
4-year term (reduced by constitutional amendment in 1994 to coincide with chamber elections)

next presidential election Oct 1 2006 (along with elections for chamber of deputies and one-third of the Senate)

lula
President Luiz Inacio LULA DA SILVA (since 1 January 2003)
Lula on Global Trade and the Developing World

Lula on Environment/Rich Countries


Bi-cameral Congress
Lower house - Chamber of Deputies
– 4 yr terms, NE (military Amazonia) over-rep’d

elected in "open list" (parties list multiple candidates, not ranked)
PR system
multimember districts

Leads to a MULTI-PARTY SYSTEM
>12 parties represented in current chamber

 

Parties

Chamber of Deputies

Federal Senate

 

Votes

%

Seats

%

Total seats

elected in 2002

 

Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores)

 

.

91

.

14

10

 

Party of the Liberal Front (Partido da Frente Liberal)

 

.

84

.

19

14

 

Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro)

 

.

74

.

19

9

 

Party of the Brazilian Social Democracy (Partido da Social-Democracia Brasileira)

 

.

71

.

11

8

 

Brazilian Progressive Party (Partido Progressista Brasileiro)

 

.

49

.

1

-

 

Liberal Party (Partido Liberal)

 

.

26

.

3

2

 

Brazilian Labour Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro)

 

.

26

.

3

2

 

Brazilian Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Brasileiro)

 

.

22

.

4

3

 

Democratic Labour Party (Partido Democrático Trabalhista)

 

.

21

.

5

4

 

Socialist People's Party (Partido Popular Socialista)

 

.

15

.

1

1

 

Communist Party of Brazil (Partido Comunista do Brasil)

 

.

12

.

-

-

 

Party of the Reconstruction of the National Order (Partido da Reedificação da Ordem Nacional)

 

.

6

.

-

-

 

Green Party (Partido Verde)

 

.

5

.

-

-

 

Social Democratic Party (Partido Social Democrático)

 

.

4

.

1

1

 

Social Labour Party (Partido Social Trabalhista)

 

.

3

.

-

-

 

Party of National Mobilization (Partido da Mobilização Nacional)

 

.

1

.

-

-

 

Christian Social Party (Partido Social Cristão)

 

.

1

.

-

-

 

Social Liberal Party (Partido Social Liberal)

 

.

1

.

-

-

 

Social Democratic Christian Party (Partido Social-Democrata Cristão)

 

.

1

.

-

-

 

Total (turnout 68.9 %)

 

 

513

 

81

54

 

Source: Câmara dos Deputados resp. O Globo

 

 


Upper house – Senate
3 senators per state;
8-yr terms, staggered elections

Supreme Ct
with judicial review


Party System
before 1979 two parties dominated
restoration of civilian rule in 1985
weak parties - why>  see pg. 426
    politics based on personality
    open list system (pits candidates of same party against one another)


Largest parties:
PT - Worker's Party
center-left, range from Marxists to Christian socialists
pro-labor,intellectuals and workers
strict party line votes
rejection of clientelism (atypical for Brazilian parties)
Lula's party
1985 corruption scandal

PFL - Liberal Front Party
largest on the center-right
grew out of ARENA (the pro-government party during the military dictatorship - 1965-1979)

PSDB - Party of Brazilian Social Democracy
social democratic/neo-liberal
"third way" party
former president Cardoso's party
founded in 1998

PMDB - Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement
centrist, liberal party
successor the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) main opposition party during military dictatorship

Dualistic Political Tradition (425)
i.e., democratic and not!
Military as “modernizers” not the highly conservative force generally found in countries prone to mil intervention
Democracy achieved through undemocratic means, e.g., coup

e.g. 1920, young, middle class officers (tenentes) spearhead movement to oust conservatives, allow trade unions, institute labor reform,min wage/max hr laws, child labor regs, land reform, state ownership of natural resources, expanded public schooling
(some of these taken up by fascist-corporatist Vargas in 1930)

1964 – “revolution from above” again military coup
for “order and progress” censorship, human rts abusees


Land ownership
Small landowning elite owns vast amounts of land while majority of people who work the land own nothing

70% of Brazil’s peasants are landless
large landowners own 43% of the land