This article aims to demonstrate that the Republic proclaimed in Brazil on November 15, 1889 is fragile because, in addition to having emerged without the participation of the Brazilian people thanks to a military coup, it was characterized throughout 133 years of history by the attempts and the occurrence of numerous coups d'état and the existence of 81 years of oligarchic and dictatorial governments and only 52 years of relative democracy. The Republic only assumed democratic airs in Brazil from 1946 to 1964 and from 1988 until the present moment without having been truly democratic. It is necessary that a truly democratic Republic be implanted in Brazil so that the governments make the common interest prevail, the interest of the community, as opposed to private interests and private business, as has always been the case in Brazil in the 133 years since the Proclamation of the Republic. Despite the 1988 Constitution being the most democratic in the history of Brazil, it needs to be greatly improved to provide Brazil with a truly democratic Republic with the construction of a Social Welfare State that ensures the supreme interests of the entire Brazilian population without exception and also prevent the occurrence of new coups d'état to implant dictatorships in Brazil.

1. 1
THE FRAGILE REPUBLIC BUILT IN BRAZIL THROUGHOUT HISTORY
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that the Republic proclaimed in Brazil on November 15,
1889 is fragile because, besides having emerged without the participation of the Brazilian
people thanks to a military coup, it has been characterized over 133 years of history by
the attempts and the occurrence of numerous coup d'état and the existence of 81 years of
oligarchic and dictatorial governments and only 52 years of relative democracy. The
Republic succeeded in Brazil to the imperial period that reached its pinnacle between
1850 and 1870 and declined later with the unfolding of various events. The end of slave
trade and slavery, the introduction of immigrant labor and conflicts with military and
religious were fundamental issues that led to the end of the monarchy in Brazil. The first
striking blow against the Brazilian Empire led by Emperor D. Pedro II, took place in
1888, when, by British imposition, Princess Isabel authorized the liberation of all slaves
in Brazil. From then on, the government lost the support of owners of slaves, the last pillar
that supported the imperial power.
In 1889, the aggravation in the relations between the army and the imperial government
was sufficient for a military coup to overthrow the monarchy and proclaim the Republic
in Brazil. The Republic gained strength among the military because there was
dissatisfaction with wages and career, and they required the right to express their political
positions that had been banned by the monarchy. The abolitionist question also added
strength to the republican movement. These groups came together in a coup that toppled
the monarchy and expelled Brazil's royal family. The Republic was implemented in Brazil
by the army inspired by the positivist philosophy of Augusto Comte. This was the reason
why the motto “Order and Progress” was adopted in the Brazilian flag. Several of the
government measures of the early years of the Republic had positivist inspiration, such
as educational reform and official separation between church and state, both in 1891.
It should be noted that Republic is a form of organization of the state whose term comes
from Latin res publica which means "public thing", "thing of the people". A truly
republican government is one that emphasizes the common interest, the interest of the
community, as opposed to private interests and the private business fact that has never
occurred in Brazil since the proclamation of the Republic in 1889. In addition, add the
deplorable fact that the proclamation of the Republic resulted from an Army -sponsored
coup d'état with the support of the economic oligarchies that dominated Brazil. It was
repeated with the proclamation of the Republic what happened with the independence of
Brazil that did not result from the struggle of the Brazilian people, but from the will of
Emperor D. Pedro I and the Portuguese Court.
It can be said that the Republic in Brazil presented the following six stages: 1) Republic
of the Sword (1889 to 1894); 2) Oligarchic republic (1894 to 1930); 3) Dictatorship
Vargas (1930 to 1945); 4) 1st Democratic Republic (1945 to 1964); 5) Military
Dictatorship (1964 to 1985); and, 6) 2nd Democratic Republic (1985 to the present day).
The Republic of the Sword was named after having had two military rulers in power:
Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca (1889 to 1891) and Marshal Floriano Peixoto (1891 to
1894). This period was marked by the promulgation in 1891 of the first constitution of
the Republican government.
The subsequent period became known as the Oligarchic Republic (1894 to 1930) because
it was a political regime that was marked by the political control exercised over the federal
government by the São Paulo coffee oligarchy and the Minas Gerais rural elite, in the

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well -known “coffee and milk policy” that took turns in the presidency of the Republic.
It was during this period that coronelismo developed most strongly, ensuring regional
political power to the various local elites of the country. In 1929, there was a political
crisis with the succession of then-President Washington Luís who, supporting as his
successor Julio Prestes from São Paulo, disrespected the agreement that existed with
Minas Gerais because It was the turn of a candidate from Minas Gerais to succeed him
by failing to follow the policy of coffee with milk, besides having electoral fraud
determining Julio Prestes's victory about Getúlio Vargas.
In 1930, the military coup that deposed President Washington Luís was as a result of the
fraudulent process of the 1929 presidential elections. It was the end of the oligarchic
republic and the beginning of the Getúlio Vargas government that led the coup d'état that
received the denomination of Revolution of 30. Getúlio Vargas exercised power from
1930 to 1945 adopting a policy of a populist and nationalist character. During this period,
the Constitutionalist Revolution of 1932 or Civil War Paulista took place, which was the
first major uprising against the administration of Getúlio Vargas in defense of the
autonomy of states guaranteed by the 1891 Constitution, besides requiring the elaboration
of a new Constitution and to calling elections for president.
To end resistance to his government and, especially after the outbreak of the revolutionary
movement directed by the communists in 1935, which was crushed by the federal
government, Getúlio Vargas sponsored with the support of the Armed Forces an coup
d'etat that established the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1937. The Estado Novo was an
authoritarian regime that imposed the 1937 Constitution, called Polaca, inspired by the
molds of fascist Italy. After 15 years in power, Getúlio Vargas was deposed on October
29, 1945 by a military coup, by pressure from public opinion and the US government,
when military troops broke into the Catete Palace in Rio de Janeiro, and forced President
Vargas's resignation. Thus, the fall of the Estado Novo and the Vargas dictatorship was
consolidated.
After the deposition of Getúlio Vargas, General Eurico Dutra was the first president
elected by direct vote. Internally, it had as its first major action, the convening of the
National Constituent Assembly that implemented the 1st Democratic Republic in Brazil.
Officialized in 1946, the new Brazilian Constitution determined the autonomy between
the three powers and the realization of direct elections for state, municipal and federal
executive and legislative positions. The government's alliance Dutra with the US
government reverberated in authoritarian political actions on the internal level. Under the
United States, the Communist Party, after receiving a significant number of votes in the
1946 elections, was considered unlawful and all civil servants belonging to the same party
were exonerated from their positions. Shortly thereafter, the Government of Brazil
announced the breach of its diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union by imposition of
the US government.
Brazil was once again governed, in the first half of the 1950s, by President Getúlio
Vargas, who climbed power by the electoral way and, by adopting in his government the
same populist and nationalist policy adopted from 1930 to 1945, he went to being the
target of the opposition of the US government and its internal allies, which wanted it out
of power. In 1954, there was an attempt of coup d´etat to the deposition of Getúlio Vargas
of Power, a fact that led him to suicide. In 1955, a new military coup was attempted to
prevent the inauguration of Juscelino Kubitschek and João Goulart, president and vice
president elected, who was frustrated with the preventive counterattack of Marshal
Henrique Lott, then army minister.

3. 3
Jânio Quadros, who was elected in 1960 replacing President Juscelino Kubitschek,
remained in power only 7 months because he resigned from the Presidency of the
Republic on August 25, 1961, intending to provoke a popular reaction against his
resignation to stay in office with greater powers. However, this did not occur, and Vice
President João Goulart assumed the Presidency of the Republic on September 3, 1961,
despite the resistance of the Armed Forces, in a parliamentary regime, that was the
political solution found in the face of the opposition of the military to his possession in a
new coup d´état attempt.
Vice President João Goulart took over the presidency of the Republic in 1961 succeeding
Jânio Quadros. Given the major structural problems experienced by Brazil and to face the
economic, political and social crisis in the early years of the 1960s, the João Goulart
government sought to implement the so -called basic reforms. The government's
onslaught by applying base reforms began on March 13, 1964 through a large rally in
Central do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro. In this rally, President João Goulart announced the
signing of the decree in which the Brazilian State expropriated private oil refineries and
the decree that expropriated unproductive lands located near by roads and railways.
As the proposals were influenced by leftist thinking, the defenders of capitalism, the
landlord and members of the Brazilian far-right were feared as to the growth of a possible
communist government in the country. The rally in Central do Brasil was the decisive
moment to determine the organization of the military to start the coup d'état that was
triggered on March 31, 1964 establishing a military dictatorship in the country that
extended until 1985. Scholars of the theme say that, the breach of hierarchy and discipline
within the Armed Forces was the main factor that caused the removal of the legalistic
military who failed to support the government of João Goulart, facilitating the coup d´état
movement.
The 1964 coup d´état strengthened the executive branch and purified the political
environment of leftists or liberals that opposed the dictatorship. Seventeen institutional
acts and about 1,000 exceptional laws were imposed on Brazilian society. With
Institutional Act No. 2, the former political parties were closed and bipartisanship was
adopted. In this way, the National Renewing Alliance (Arena), which supported the
government and the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), appeared, representing
opponents, but surrounded by narrow limits of action. The government set up a strong
repressive system with the creation of the National Information Service (SNI). The
institutional acts promulgated during the governments of the generals Castello Branco
(1964-1967) and Costa e Silva (1967-1969) ended the state of democratic law of the
country that was completed in the government of General Costa e Silva to contain the
manifestations of opposition against dictatorship, decreed in December 1968, with
Institutional Act No. 5 that suspended Congress activities and authorized the persecution
of opponents of the military dictatorship.
On March 15, 1974, General Ernesto Geisel assumed power promising to restore
democracy in Brazil. Even slow and gradual, political openness began, which allowed the
growth of opposition forces to the military dictatorship. Geisel's slow, gradual and safe
political opening became a necessity for the military regime because it was becoming
increasingly difficult to keep the country operating based on repression. In the 1980s, the
struggle for the end of the presence of the military in central power were multiplying. In
the last months of 1983, a campaign for direct elections for president, the "Diretas Já",
which united various political leaders, began throughout the country. The movement

4. 4
reached the peak in 1984, when the Constitutional Amendment Dante de Oliveira was
voted, which intended to restore direct elections for president.
On April 25th, despite obtaining the majority of votes, the amendment did not get the 2/3
necessary for its approval. Soon after the defeat on April 25, a large part of the opposition
forces decided to participate in the indirect elections for president. The PMDB launched
Tancredo Neves for president and José Sarney for vice president. Once the Electoral
College had gathered, the majority of votes went to Tancredo Neves, who defeated Paulo
Maluf of the PDS, candidate of the military dictatorship. Thus ended the military
dictatorship. Tancredo Neves died before assuming power, a fact that made Vice
President José Sarney occupy the Presidency of the Republic.
With the end of the military dictatorship, the elaboration of a new democratic Constitution
became necessary. The National Constituent Assembly began to meet in February 1987
and only ended its activities in September 1988. The new Constitution was promulgated
on October 5, 1988 and remains to this day the fundamental law of Brazil because it is
the basis of all the Brazilian legal system. With it was erected the 2nd democratic
Republic in Brazil that prevails until the present time.
Fernando Collor de Mello was the first president of Brazil directly elected by popular
vote after the end of the Military Regime, replacing José Sarney, when began, in 1990,
the process of dismantling the institutional apparatus that characterized the national
developmentalist model of the Vargas Era and of the Kubitschek and the military regime
governments in Brazil and was adopted the neoliberal economic model . The treasurer of
Collor's presidential campaign, Paulo César (PC) Farias, was accused of being involved
in a corruption scandal. This suspicion ended up involving the figure of President Collor
in the scandal, a fact that cost not only his position, but also his political rights through
impeachment.
Vice President Itamar Franco replaced Fernando Collor de Mello and, in subsequent
elections, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), Lula, Dilma Roussef, Michel Temer and
Jair Bolsonaro assumed the Presidency of the Republic. Dilma Rousseff, who was
president of the Federative Republic of Brazil from January 2011 to August 2016 (re-
elected in the 2014 elections) was the victim of a parliamentary coup d'état, when she
suffered an impeachment process that resulted in her removal from power. Vice President
Michel Temer, who replaced Dilma Rousseff, adopted economic measures that deepened
the recession and made it impossible to resume Brazil's development.
Succeeding Michel Temer, Jair Bolsonaro transformed Brazil into a scorched earth
situation in the political, economic, social, national sovereignty, environmental, science
and technology, education and culture and, above all, social rights and public health areas
with the adoption of neo-fascist measures and more radical neoliberalism. President Jair
Bolsonaro radicalized in the adoption of the neoliberal economic model and represented
a concrete threat to the end of democracy, social rights and the independence of Brazil in
relation to the great powers and international capital. Lula's victory in the last presidential
elections avoided the end of the 2nd democratic Republic in Brazil that would occur with
the dictatorship that would be imposed on the Brazilian people if the neo-fascist candidate
Jair Bolsonaro was re-elected.
From everything that has just been exposed, it can be said that Brazil does not have many
reasons to celebrate another year of the Republic implanted in 1889 through a coup d'état
that, over 133 years of existence, had 41 years of oligarchic governments, 40 years of
dictatorships and only 52 years of relative democracy. The Republic only assumed

5. 5
democratic airs in Brazil from 1946 to 1964 and from 1988 until the present moment
without having been truly democratic. It is necessary that a truly democratic Republic be
implanted in Brazil so that the governments make the common interest, the interest of the
community prevail, as opposed to private interests and private business, as has always
been the case in Brazil in the 133 years since the Proclamation of the Republic. Despite
the 1988 Constitution being the most democratic in the history of Brazil, it needs to be
greatly improved to provide Brazil with a truly democratic Republic with the construction
of a Social Welfare State that ensures the supreme interests of the entire Brazilian
population without exception and also prevent the occurrence of new coups d'état to
implant dictatorships in Brazil.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member
of the Bahia Academy of Education, of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and of
IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development
from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning,
business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice
President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de
Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center,
Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the author of the
books 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. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 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), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso
e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022) and a chapter in the book Flood Handbook
(CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, United States, 2022).