During its independent political history, Brazil has had seven constitutions. The most recent was ratified on October 5, 1988.
Imperial Constitution (1824)
Background Prior to its independence on September 7, 1822, Brazil had no formal Constitution, since Portugal only adopted its first Constitution on September 23, 1822, 16 days after Brazil proclaimed independence. In 1823, Emperor Pedro I started the political process of writing a Constitution.
Drafting of the first Constitution of Brazil was quite difficult and the power struggle involved resulted in a long-lasting unrest that plagued the country for nearly two decades. Two major facts increased the troubles: Large numbers of recent immigrants from Portugal (the so-called "Portuguese Party"), who wanted to keep their privileges or who were still loyal to the metropolitan government. These were found both among the wealthier parts of the population, as businessmen controlling Brazil's international trade, and the lower ones, as tradesmen and free urban workers (the Brazilian elite was mostly rural). The majority of the population was composed of slaves, prompting the whites to fear being massacred in the event of a rebellion caused by a failing state.
The first circumstance meant that despite strong support of the Crown Prince Pedro I by the Brazilian landowners (the so-called "Brazilian Party"), the opinions of the reinóis (name then given to recent immigrants from Portugal) should be considered. As each side had very distinct and different objectives none could prevail and a compromise was needed.
There were also additional problems: the Constitutional Assembly had been elected to decide the applicability of Portuguese laws in Brazil, not to draft a new constitution. As a result, some of the Portuguese deputies refused to take part in it. On the other hand, the liberal Brazilian deputies had been persecuted: some were exiled while others were imprisoned. Thus the Constitutional Assembly did not hear an appreciable number of opinions and would reflect the objectives of the "Brazilian Party", to the detriment of the "Portuguese Party" and the liberals.
As the draft constitution progressed it became clear that the deputies were trying to establish a constitution that would: curtail the powers of the monarch, restrict most political rights to landowners and deny them to the Portuguese, and establish an authoritarian, but constitutional, monarchy, whose head of government would be the Emperor himself, aided by a group of ministers of his choice.
The Emperor did not want to serve as a mere decorative figurehead, but rather to protect the interests of the Portuguese businessmen (who were the main economic base of Brazil) and prevent any further cession of his power to the Parliament.
In light of the wave of conservatism led by the Holy Alliance, the Emperor used his influence over the Brazilian Army to dissolve the Constitutional Assembly, in what became known as the Night of Agony. On his own authority, he then issued a constitution that concentrated the executive power on the Emperor himself (eventually crowned "Constitutional Emperor and Perpetual Defender of Brazil").
Based on the French Constitution of 1791 and the Spanish Constitution of 1812, the Constitution endowed the Assembly with both status and authority. It created executive, legislative, judicial, and moderating branches as "delegations of the nation" with the separation of those powers envisaged as providing balances in support of the Constitution and the rights it enshrined.
The Constitution of 1824 was rather less parliamentary than the draft prepared by the Constituent Assembly. In fact, it was for all purposes a peculiar and unique regime: a "presidential" monarchy. That did not mean, by any means, that the Brazilian monarch had prerogatives resembling those of a tyrant or dictator. The individual guarantees of human liberty and dignity were inserted into the articles of the Charter and were respected. The Emperor would not act in areas reserved to the legislative branch and the judiciary, such as to create laws or to judge and sentence.
Even though it vested the Emperor with more power than its would-be predecessor, the Imperial Constitution was considered very progressive for its time. It was considered more progressive than several constitutions used by European liberal powers.
The Constitution The new constitution, published on March 25, 1824 outlined the existence of four powers:
Executive — The State Council Legislative — The General Assembly, formed by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies Judiciary — The Courts Moderator — Vested in the Emperor, was supposed to resolve any incompatibilities between the other three, acting as a "neutral" power, in accordance to the theories of the French-Swiss thinker Benjamin Constant.
The Emperor controlled the Executive by nominating the members of the State Council, influenced the Legislative by being allowed to propose motions and having the power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies (senators sat for life, however, being individually chosen by the emperor among the top three candidates in a given province) and also influenced the Judiciary, by appointing (for life) the members of the Highest Court.
This constitution established the Empire of Brazil as a unitary state (the provinces had little autonomy, if any). The Amendment (Ato Adicional) of August 12, 1834, enacted in a period of liberal reform, authorized the provinces to create their own legislative chambers, which were empowered to legislate on financial matters, create taxes and their own corps of civil servants under a chief executive nominated by the central power; it was however revised by an "interpretive" act of May 1840, enacted in a period of conservative reaction, which allowed the central power to appoint judges and police officers in the provinces.
On July 20, 1847, a Decree (number 523) established the post of Prime Minister, formally titled "president of the Council of Ministers" (not to be confused with the State Council, whose ten members sat for life and which in the late Empire functioned solely as an advising body to the Emperor). Appointed by the Emperor, the Prime Minister then chose a cabinet of state secretaries, or ministers. The cabinet had to maintain the support of a majority in the General Assembly. The Emperor's acts were not valid without the countersignature of the minister responsible for the issue concerned. The 1847 decree thus turned the Empire into a standard constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system.
The franchise was very limited, being censitary and indirect: no male citizen who was not head of a household and/or had a net yearly income of less than a hundred milréis was allowed to vote in the primary elections that chose actual electors, empowered with the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.On the requisites to the franchise on various levels, see Chapter VI of the Constitution, according to the text available at As a result, Brazilian legislatures had a decided conservative slant. Combined with widespread electoral frauds, no Prime Minister chosen by the Emperor – who had the power to order the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies and new elections to it – ever failed to win a parliamentary majority in subsequent elections.
The Constitution of 1824, enacted in the name of the Holy Trinity, also instituted Catholicism as the state religion, allowing other religions to be practiced only in private: non-Catholic places of worship could not be fashioned to appear as religious buildings from the outside. It also excluded slaves from Brazilian citizenship, by extending it to all people born in Brazil who were freeborn or freed.Cf. arts. 5 and 6 of the Constitution of 1824, available at
Old Republic Constitution (1891)
Background On November 15, 1889, the Emperor Pedro II was deposed, the Brazilian monarchy abolished and the 1824 Constitution was put out of effect. No provisional constitution was used while a definitive successor document was being written. The writing process began in 1889, by a group of jurists and politicians, and the text was later amended by a Constitutional Congress on February 24, 1891.
The Constitution In its final form, the new Constitution meant to create a federal state to promote individual liberties above all, following the basic principles of the Constitution of the United States, albeit with the adoption of a slightly different (and somewhat more centralized) form of federalism.
The main traits of the Constitution were:
Federalism: the provinces were turned into states whose indissoluble union was taken as forming the Body Politic of the Brazilian Federation. Governors (at the time called State Presidents) were to be elected by direct vote and a fixed term of office. Separation of the State and Church. Male universal suffrage (with exceptions, mostly illiterates, beggars and members of monastic orders) and basic individual rights for all citizens. Abolition of the death penalty. Adoption of standard three-way separation of powers under a presidential republic on the American model; direct elections for all members of the Legislative and chief officers of the Executive branch. The Executive branch was headed by a President of the Republic, elected by direct voting (rather than an Electoral college in the American model) – who had a four-year term and could not be reelected for a second, successive, term – and his freely chosen cabinet of ministers. The Senate was reorganized as the Upper House of the Legislative branch, formed of representatives of the states (as opposed to the representatives of the people in the Chamber of Deputies) directly elected and with fixed terms of office.
Third Constitution (1934)
Background
In 1930, after severe political problems, President Washington Luís was overthrown by a coup d'état. The 1891 Constitution was annulled and the Provisional President Getúlio Vargas ruled as a de facto personal dictator, but the state landed elites (who had controlled the Brazilian state ever since independence) struggled to prevent this from continuing. In 1932, in São Paulo, the Constitutionalist Revolution demanded a Constitution. As a result, a Constitutional Assembly was elected and the constitution was promulgated on July 16, 1934, less than four years after the coup d'état had overthrown the Old Republic. Vargas accepted this constitution in order to legitimise his power.
The Constitution This Constitution was the shortest-lived Constitution of Brazil, lasting only three years (until 1937).
Despite its short life, this constitution was important because it was the first time a Brazilian constitution was written from scratch by directly elected deputies in multi-party elections. As a consequence of this, it incorporated a number of improvements to Brazilian political, social and economical life:
Granted complete independence to the Supreme Court and subordinated all other courts to it. Extended political rights to all adults, regardless of sex. Introduced proportional voting for elections to the Chamber of Deputies, which included representatives of the people as well as a minority of representatives from trade unions and other professional organizations – a corporatist device introduced under the shock of the Russian Revolution and the influence of Italian fascism. Created a specific electoral court to supervise elections, under the control of the Supreme Court (previously the supervision of elections was under control of the Legislative Branch). Following a trend set by the German Weimar Constitution, acknowledged a whole host of social rights alongside political and civil ones: the national minimum wage, the eight-hour workday, mandatory weekly rest, paid vacations and indemnity for unmotivated firing.