Politics of Brazil - Constitution

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.