Opinion

Brazil’s problem is more than just Jair Bolsonaro

The seeds of institutional turmoil in Brazil were sown long before Jair Bolsonaro came to power

bolsonaro institutional problem
President Jair Bolsonaro prepares to address the nation. Photo: Isac Nóbrega/PR

Over the course of less than a month, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro joined a rally in favor of a military coup to suspend the Congress and Supreme Court, broke with his most popular cabinet minister, and found himself the target of multiple investigations and calls for impeachment.

A former Army captain and an ardent admirer of the country’s military dictatorship (1964-1985), Mr. Bolsonaro has long championed authoritarian tactics. But once in power, he proved to be a poor administrator and an even worse negotiator. His incredibly popular Justice Minister Sergio Moro resigned after Mr. Bolsonaro allegedly attempted to interfere with Federal Police investigations for the benefit of his own sons. Therefore, it could seem to the casual observer as if Jair Bolsonaro is now simply reaping what he sowed.

While he certainly is the author of much of his own misfortune, this political crisis is in reality the latest reiteration of a perpetual institutional crisis in Brazil. Since the country began its first legitimate democratic period in the wake of World War II, it has struggled with the fact that the electoral processes employed created differing constituencies and motivations for the legislative and executive branches. This institutional weakness first appeared in Brazil’s 1946 constitution, yet it continues to plague the country even under the current magna carta, ratified in 1988.

The result is that the executive and the legislative branches are elected with almost entirely different mandates. This significantly complicates President-Congress relations and makes it extremely difficult to govern with any efficacy. This reoccurring conundrum has led many presidents down paths destructive to democratic integrity, including corruption, populist intimidation, and appeals to extralegal solutions. This unfortunate reality has led, time and time again, to the degradation of Brazilian democracy

Regardless of Bolsonaro’s fate, the issue will occur again unless institutional reform is undertaken.

A historical problem

Following the conclusion of World War II, the Brazilian military launched a coup against the Estado Novo dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas. With the end of the dictatorship, a swift period of democratization began and Brazil adopted a new constitution in 1946. For the first time in Brazilian history, honest democratic institutions would be combined with regularly held elections. This democratic phase would last for only 18 years, until another military coup in 1964. It was in this period that this institutional crisis first appeared.

Historian Thomas Skidmore noted the phenomenon in his work in 1967. He explained that rural states were significantly overrepresented in Congress but that this advantage was lost in presidential elections. He states that this imbalance was created by the fact that congressional representation was allocated to the states based on population, but the 1946 constitution restricted suffrage to literates. In 1960s Brazil, nearly 40 percent of the population could neither read nor write, and many of them were found in rural areas. As a result, rural voters — often under the influence of local landowners — held enormous power in comparison with urban voters in congressional elections, but not the presidential dispute, where a national popular vote and first-past-the-post system were in place.

This divergence set the stage for a deleterious disconnect between the executive and legislative branch, which became extremely apparent in the brief administration of former President Jânio Quadros.

Elected in 1960, Jânio Quadros was in fact similar to Jair Bolsonaro in some ways. He ran on an anti-establishment, anti-corruption platform and was not the product of any of the major political parties — though he accepted their support when it benefitted him. Once elected, he vacillated wildly between pursuing major reform and random personal projects. Having almost no solid congressional foundation, he clashed frequently with the legislative branch, as many of them resented his proposed anti-corruption reforms.

corruption janio quadros
Jânio Quadros with his inseparable broom: the promised to sweep corruption away from politics. Photo: National Archive

Just eight months into his administration, Jânio Quadros mysteriously resigned, citing the insurmountable forces he faced in attempting to govern. Most historians agree that he was inspired by the example of Charles de...

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