Constitution
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 indirectly 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 two years later (November 10, 1937) used it as a pretext to establish autocratic rule. He instituted a corporatist constitution nicknamed the Polish, (because it was said to have been inspired by a Polish constitution), written by Francisco Campos.
- Constitution of 1946 – in October, 1945, with the II World War over, a civil-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.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Brazil
Famous quotes containing the word constitution:
“What we learn for the sake of knowing, we hold; what we learn for the sake of accomplishing some ulterior end, we forget as soon as that end has been gained. This, too, is automatic action in the constitution of the mind itself, and it is fortunate and merciful that it is so, for otherwise our minds would be soon only rubbish-rooms.”
—Anna C. Brackett (1836–1911)
“If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.... The flag and the Constitution stand for democracy and not tyranny, for freedom, not subjection.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“I never did ask more, nor ever was willing to accept less, than for all the States, and the people thereof, to take and hold their places, and their rights, in the Union, under the Constitution of the United States. For this alone have I felt authorized to struggle; and I seek neither more nor less now.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)