Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais ISSN: 0102-6909 [email protected] Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciências Sociais Brasil Junior Lima, Olavo Brasil de Presidential elections: centrality, context, and implications Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, vol. 15, núm. 99, october, 2000 Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Ciências Sociais São Paulo, Brasil Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=10794405 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: Centrality, Context, and Implications* Olavo Brasil de Lima Junior This article will take what, at first, will seem tion, a figure systematically greater than population like a less than conventional approach, particularly figures. In addition, the progressive fall of voting for analysts avid for numbers. The reason for this is barriers, such as income, class, age, and education, that the numbers are insufficient and unreliable. democratized voting, and diversified the social The basic aim of this article is to prove that it composition of voters. Not all these improvements was the confluence of certain demographic, social, represented equal benefits for all regions and all economic, and political factors, which began in states; frequently their impact on the increase in 1960 that nationalized elections, and integrated voters differed according to context. and democratized Brazil. Increased urbanization Nationalization of the vote, defined by the ensured that the election of the president did not indicators described above, is a part of the political depend only on rural political forces, but on an integration of society. An election of the propor- infinity of possible combinations of rural and urban tions of a presidential election, in association with forces. A presidential candidate can no longer rely the social complexity of the voting population, on specific and numerically forceful segments of requires that the political message and the claim of society to guarantee his success; he/she needs the candidate wishing to maximize the vote must more expanded social bases. be very broad. This is essential to avoid any My argument will be constructed step by step manifestations, during the campaign, of potential throughout this article. At first, I shall attempt to conflict threatening to fragment support of the prove that the electoral market expanded on all candidate to a degree that places the formation of territorial fronts, particularly as a consequence of a national majority, as described above, at risk. the urbanization and growth of the voting popula- The first part of the article examines a nation- al reluctance to acknowledge the Presidency as * Published originally in Revista Brasileira de Ciências So- Brazil’s supreme position. This is due to the peo- ciais, volume 14 , n. 40, June 1999, pp. 11-30. ple’s troublesome and conflicted relationship with Translated by Alison Barnes and revised by Argelina a federative republic that has yet to be seen as an Figueiredo and Renato Boschi. institution, which did not arise from a unanimous Brazilian Review of Social Sciences, special issue, no. 1, October 2000 54 BRAZILIAN REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES - SPECIAL ISSUE No. 1 agreement between the states, and which is not who concluded the Republic’s first presidential viewed as a permanent political factor. mandate. The second analytical part discusses, opera- All three succeeding and non-military presi- tionalizes, and explains Brazil’s political integra- dents fulfilled their terms of office. Afonso Pena, tion, based on the results of the direct presidential who died in 1909, did not resume his second term, elections of 1960, 1989, 1994, and 1998. I have as then permitted, since he died before taking availed myself of demographic, social, and political office. He was succeeded by his vice-president indicators to reach my conclusions on the nation- Nilo Peçanha who fulfilled his term of office. From alization of the presidential elections since the 1910 through 1930, we had six presidents, all of 1960 presidential election. whom also fulfilled their terms of office. This was Lastly, in the third part, I have carried out a a period of upheaval caused by a variety of political careful evaluation of the circumstances surround- movements. The most politically significant of ing the more recent presidential elections, and these movements were those of the twenties, with have compared the candidates’ social bases in the their slogan of “representation and justice for all”. 1994 and 1998 election campaigns. This period also became notorious for its contempt for the Constitution: federal intervention in the states, civil and military coups, and minimal partic- From rulers to presidents ipation of the voting public. This participation was Some time ago, I read the Livro de Posse dos doubly fraudulent, firstly due to the use of electoral Presidentes da República (book where the inaugu- lists of questionable reliability (ex officio) and, ration of Brazilian presidents is recorded), which secondly the requirement that the election results was restored for the Centennial of the Republic had to be “recognized” by the House of Represen- Celebrations by the Fundação Casa de Rui Barbosa tatives, by that arbitrary mechanism known in and published in 1991 in a facsimile edition, jointly Portuguese as bico de pena, best described as by this same Foundation and the Federal Senate. unilateral decree. This book inspired me to re-examine Brazil’s polit- The second republican period (known as the ical history, based on an analysis of one of the few Second Republic) began after the 1930 Revolution more permanent but barely institutionalized as- that broke out allegedly due to the nation’s refusal pects of Brazilian semi-constitutional life: the pres- to accept the official results of the 1930 presidential idential elections and their implications. elections. The Second Republic was inaugurated Brazilian Republic has had 38 presidents, by a government coalition that, on October 3 some directly elected and the majority indirectly, swore in Getúlio Vargas (Lima Junior et al., 1991, p. two military governments, and seven constitutions, 138) who governed from 1930 to 1934 as provi- advances and deteriorations in the democratic sional president. From 1934 to 1937 he was the process, represented by differing political regimes. legitimate president of Brazil, having been indirect- The first period (1989-1930) was that of the provi- ly elected by Congress for a four-year mandate. sional government headed by marshall Deodoro This mandate was abruptly terminated by the da Fonseca and 12 presidents. After the National president’s coup in 1937, when the so-called Esta- Constitution Convention proclaimed the 1891 Con- do Novo was inaugurated and continued uninter- stitution, the former became the National Congress ruptedly until 1945. and elected Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Ten presidents governed throughout the Peixoto, as president and vice-president, respec- Third Republic (1945-1965). The first was the tively, despite the unequivocal preference of Con- president of the Federal Supreme Court, José Lin- gress members for the non-military candidate, hares, who took office on October 29, 1945, shortly Prudente de Morais. In November 1891, Deodoro after Vargas was deposed. Only two presidents, closed down Congress, resigned, and handed over Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1945-1950) and Juscelino the government to his successor, Floriano Peixoto, Kubitschek de Oliveira (1955-1960), the latter only PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: CENTRALITY, CONTEXT, AND IMPLICATIONS 55 by overcoming many obstacles, succeeded in ful- tution then in force —, it records the unprecedent- filling their full terms of office. When Vargas, re- ed “statement of commitment”, signed by João elected in 1950, committed suicide, he was suc- Goulart, and all the other procedures related to the ceeded by his vice-president, Café Filho. installation of the parliamentary system of govern- When Juscelino Kubitschek was elected in ment and the return to the presidential system 1955, he was unable to be sworn in due to his (Lima Junior et al., 1991, pp. 221-256). The right election being challenged by the right wing opposi- wing faction based its unconcealed opposition to tion. The reactionary forces prevented him from Goulart on the allegation that he intended to taking office, and installed the president of the radically amend the 1946 Constitution, the very House of Representatives, Carlos Luz, as successor document that protected his right to the Presiden- to the vice-president Café Filho. Café Filho, known cy, without the need to resort to legal violations to for his loyalty to Kubitschek and to the Constitution which he and the nation were subjected. was forced to take a leave of absence. Later, when Three parliamentary cabinets then followed. he attempted to return to power, he was deposed The return to the presidential system came about and a second military coup installed the then vice- based on the plebiscite decision of January 6, 1963. president of the Senate, Nereu Ramos as president. This consisted of 9,457,488 votes in favor and However, thanks to a counter military uprising, the 2,073,582 against. On March 31(or April 1?), 1964, legitimately elected president, Juscelino Kubitschek, the army deposed president Goulart and, immedi- finally took office. The last president elected during ately thereafter, on April 2, Congress declared the the Third Republic, Jânio Quadros, took office in office vacant and swore in the president of the 1961, but resigned in August of the same year, House of Representatives and second in line of claiming that it was impossible to govern due to succession, Ranieri Mazzilli. The inauguration of “excess” opposition and other alleged impossible Mazzilli was not recorded in the Livro de Posse. demands imposed on him.