Republic is a form of organization of the State whose term comes from the Latin res public that means "public thing", "people's thing ". In theory, a republican government is one that puts emphasis on the common interest, in the interest of the community, as opposed to private interests and private business. In the history of the Republic in Brazil since 1889, upon its proclamation through a coup d´état, these principles have not been respected. The History of the Brazilian Republic began in 1889 with the Proclamation of the Republic and followed the whole period after, until the 21st century.In Brazil, there is no reason to celebrate 127 years of the Republic on November 15.

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REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL - FROM THE PUBLIC THING TO THE PRIVATE
THING
Fernando Alcoforado *
Republic is a form of organization of the State whose term comes from the Latin res
public that means "public thing", "people's thing ". In theory, a republican government
is one that puts emphasis on the common interest, in the interest of the community, as
opposed to private interests and private business. In the history of the Republic in Brazil
since 1889, upon its proclamation through a coup d´état, these principles have not been
respected. The History of the Brazilian Republic began in 1889 with the Proclamation
of the Republic and followed the whole period after, until the 21st century.
The diffusion of republican ideals goes back to the colonial period, as during the
Inconfidence of Minas Gerais and the Bahian Conjuration, in the late eighteenth
century. Although ideals and revolts sought to overcome the monarchy, only in the late
nineteenth century, with the end of slavery, the country's agrarian elites agreed to
organize the Brazilian state in the Republican molds. The fact that the Republic was
born in Brazil without effective popular participation, that it was accepted by the elites
and that it was carried out through the sword of the Brazilian army conformed an
authoritarian and exclusive character of the Brazilian State, guaranteeing the privileges
of the ruling classes and the denial of the rights of the majority of the Brazilian people.
The participation of the army in national political life was also a constant in the
Republican history of Brazil until the end of the military dictatorship in 1985.
The Old Republic, or First Republic, is the first stage of republican history in Brazil,
comprised between the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 and the Revolution of
1930. The rural elite of São Paulo and Minas Gerais now have the power of the federal
government that guaranteed the interests of the agrarian oligarchy. It was in this period
that the country experienced a series of urban and rural revolts due to the social and
political changes that the country has undergone. Among the revolts is the War of
Canudos, from 1896-1897. The 1930 Revolution began the Vargas Era with Getúlio
Vargas' rise to power, which remained there until 1945. During his interim government
(1930-1934), the new president managed to get around conflicts between national elites,
especially with victory over The São Paulo oligarchy during the Constitutionalist
Revolution of 1932.
The promulgation of the Constitution in 1934 and the opening of a democratic process
sealed the agreement among the various fractions of the national ruling class that could
not contain the dissatisfaction of the popular sectors. It is in this sense that one can
understand the attempt to overthrow the Vargas government through what was known
as the Communist Putsch of 1935. The Communist Putsch served as a pretext for
Vargas to give a coup d' état in 1937 inaugurating the so-called New State that marked
the most a period of extreme authoritarianism of the Brazilian State. A new Constitution
was adopted and the National Congress was closed. As a way to contain popular
dissatisfaction and to increase the consumption power of the domestic market, Vargas
enacted a series of laws that guaranteed some rights to the urban working class, as well
as providing a level of income that would boost the industrialization effort.
Industrialization together with measures of rationalization of the public administration
characterized the effort to modernize the Brazilian State during the Vargas Era,
guaranteeing the conditions for strengthening both the industrial bourgeoisie and the

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technocracy of state enterprises and public administration. At the end of World War II,
in 1945, Vargas suffered a coup d'état by the Armed Forces commanded by General
Eurico Gaspar Dutra under pressure from internal political forces and the US
government against his nationalist and populist policies. A new Constitution was
adopted in 1946, guaranteeing the holding of direct elections for President of the
Republic and for the governments of the states. The National Congress returned to work
and there was alternation in power. However, it was a period of strong political
instability.
The social changes resulting from urbanization and industrialization projected new
political forces that sought to deepen the process of modernization of Brazilian society
and the state, which displeased conservative elites. This period was marked by several
coups d´état attempts, one of which led to Getúlio Vargas's suicide in 1954. From 1955,
JK's government succeeded in impressing on an accelerated industrial development in
the country, but expanded the problem of social exclusion in the city and in the country.
Measures of social change and national emancipation would form the basis of the
proposals of the João Goulart Government. The Brazilian state was moving towards
resolving long-overdue repressed demands, such as agrarian reform.
In the face of the danger it posed to its economic and political interests, the ruling
classes of the country with the support of the United States government once again
orchestrated a coup d'état, with the deposition by the army of João Goulart in 1964.
April 1964, the Military Dictatorship was one of the most repressive periods in the
history of the Republic. Numerous political groups have been cancelled, and many of its
members have been tortured and killed. What characterized this period was the
systematization of state repression allied to the incentive to economic development. The
repressive state structure, which prevented the exercise of political opposition through
police institutions, guaranteed the social stability necessary for foreign investment
during the military dictatorship. It was the period of the Brazilian economic miracle and
the attempt to transform the country into a world power.
The Military Dictatorship existed until 1985 when popular pressures for political
openness took to the streets, mainly in the Immediate Direct Elections campaign. Even
with thousands of people on the streets, state reform was done in a "slow and gradual"
way, as the military wanted. On the side of the working class, a vigorous trade union
movement emerged in the 1970s, especially after the strikes in the São Paulo ABC
between 1978 and 1980. The New Republic began under the government of José Sarney
and remains to this day. Sarney was elected through indirect voting and during his
administration a new Constitution was drawn up, enacted in 1988, which guaranteed
direct and free elections to all elective positions. The division of powers was maintained
and a new liberal democratic perspective was opened in the country. The first president
directly elected since 1960 was Fernando Collor de Melo in 1989. However, the
corruption scandals made him resign in 1992.
From the resignation of Fernando Collor, the political history of the Republic marked
the mandates of three rulers. The first was Itamar Franco, which with the Real Plan was
able to guarantee the economic stability necessary for foreign investments. These
investments were possible due to privatizations in specific sectors of the economy, such
as telecommunications, mining and steel. On the other hand, these measures represented
the reduction of the functions of the Brazilian State, marking the period of neoliberalism
in Brazil. Fernando Henrique Cardoso governed from 1994 to 2002, when he was

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replaced by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who sought to characterize his government by
the income distribution made possible by the economic stability of the previous period.
The distribution of income occurred through policies such as Bolsa Familia income
distribution program. Despite the political stability of the two governments mentioned
above, cases of corruption were also present, such as the accusations of votes for re-
election during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso government in 1998, the “mensalão”
corruption scandal in the Lula administration in 2005 and the “petrolão” corruption
scandal in the Dilma Rousseff government that was elected in 2010 and suffered
impeachment in 2016.
During the Republican period, private interests and private business have prevailed over
the common interest throughout the history of Brazil. The Republican system in force in
Brazil is, in fact, a democracy only for the rich and corrupt. In this system, the elections
are a farce because they are controlled by the oligarchies that make that the majority of
the candidates in the service of the big companies win. This is a game of marked cards
because national and international economic groups have boosted big parties by
financing their millionaire elections. Companies and banks have always elected their
"seats" at various levels of legislative power that pass laws in favor of the powerful on
the basis of vote-buying and lobbying, and even bill state millionaire contracts. The
assault on public coffers by politicians and parties and the occupation of the positions of
the governmental machinery by the ruling parties became commonplace in Brazilian
political life.
The bankruptcy of Brazil's political model is shaped by the fact that presidentialism in
force since 1889 has generated political and institutional crises such as those that have
occurred in the past that have resulted in impeachments and coups d'état. In addition,
the country's political system is contaminated by corruption. Representative democracy
in Brazil also manifests clear signs of exhaustion by discouraging popular participation
in government decisions, reducing political activity to mere electoral processes that
repeat periodically in which the people elect their representatives, who, with few
exceptions, after the elections begin to defend interests of economic groups as opposed
to the interests of those who elected them. In Brazil, there is no reason to celebrate 127
years of the Republic on November 15.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015) and As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016) .