Federalismo

• Main Author: Ivo Coser
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação de Actividades Científicas 2008-10-01
• Series: Ler História
• Subjects: federalism; confederation; Nation-State; Brazilian political thought
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/2218

This article aims at understanding the formation of the concept of federalism and of provincial interest in the Brazilian political debate of the XIXth century. At first federalism was a synonym of confederation, as revealed, for example, in the political debate surrounding the 1823 Constitution. During the 1830s, the innovations achieved in the North-American political arrangement after the convention of 1787 were started being received by Brazil’s political elite. Supporters of the «Código do Processo», Federalists argued that government employees in the provinces should come from the local population, and that decentralization should allow citizens that reside in a municipality to participate in setting the judiciary system. The rebellions that occurred during the Regency period lead to a reformulation of their political agenda, which started to give precedence to provincial interests over municipal interests. The decentralization should be conducted by the provincial legislative power to the detriment of the municipalities, and the federative pact should be understood as a space in which the various interests of the provinces contribute to push forward national development and to control public power.