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- Government:
- Judiciary Branch:
In the Federal Constitution, the Judicial branch is mentioned on articles 92 to 126. Article 92.
The following are the bodies of the Judicial Power:
the Supreme Federal Court;
the Superior Court of Justice;
the Federal Regional Courts and the Federal Judges;
the Labour Courts and Judges;
the Electoral Courts and Judges;
the Military Courts and Judges;
the Courts and Judges of the states, of the Federal District and of the territories.
- Executive Branch
- Legislative Branch:
Federal Legislative
The Federal Legislative Power structure is defined by articles 44 - 75 of Federal Constitution.
The Federal Legislative branch is composed by two Houses: the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. When referred to as a single entity, Senate and Chamber are called the
National Congress.
- The National Congress:
The National Congress occupies one of the most famous buildings of Brasilia. The half-esphere looking down is the plenarium of Senate, and the half looking up is the
Chamber; the two buildings in the middle are where the offices are located.
The competences of the National Congress are established on articles 48, 49 and 50 of Constitution.
- The Senate:
The Senators represent each of the Brazilian States. Regardless of population, area, wealthness or any other factor, each State elects three Senators. Senators are
ellected for a eight year term; every four years, either 2/3 or 1/3 of Senate is renovated; in 2002, 1/3 of Senate was renovated.
Senators are elected by majoritarian votation: the candidate with most votes is the winner.
- The Chamber of Deputies:
Federal Deputies represent the people. The number of Deputies is proportional to the population of each state, with minimum and maximum limits determined by a law.
Deputies are ellected for four year terms, with elections held every four years.
Deputies are elected by the proportional votation of each Party; if a Party has 20% percent of the votes in a State, then this Party will ellect 20% of the Deputies
of the State; so, a Deputy can be elected even if there are other candidates with more votes.
Deputies are not prohibited from changing Parties after being elected.
United Nations Development Programme - A Report about Democracy in Latin America:
The United Nations Development Programme announced today the release of a Report called "La Democracia en America Latina" (in Spanish only). Click here to visit the UNDP's
page about the report; the contents of the report were not made public.
According to O Globo newspaper, the Study graded countries in Latin America according to their Index of Electoral Democracy - IDE (Indice de Democracia Eleitoral).
On a scale going from 0 to 1 (maximum freedom), Brazil was given maximum grade; out of the eighteen countries observed, five had maximum grade: Bolivia, Costa Rica,
Honduras, Panama and Uruguay; the country with the lowest grade was Colombia, with 0.57.
The agregated index for Latin America has been showing expressive improvement over the years: in 1977, the index was 0.27; in 1985, it was 0.69; in 1990, it had grown
to 0.86. In 2002, the average index of all countries was 0.93. The survey interviewed 19 thousand citizens and 231 political leaders.
Elections in Brazil are free and fair, Unesco says.
The Brazilian Constitution was promulgated in 1988. Brazil is a Republic with three Powers, harmonic and independent: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary. Brazilian
citizens are much more watchful on the actions of the Executive than on the Legislative. The figure of the President overshadows even the most proeminent Legislative
members. Also, much more hope is put on the personal qualities of the governants than on the Institutions or the Laws.
In 1990, president Fernando Collor was elected promising to change the country by chasing the marajas (civil servants with high salaries and privileges); his first
act was to seize much of the savings of every person and corporation which was deposited in the Brazilian banks. Because of the strong belief on the capacity of the
Presidents, such act was not contested by the Legislative or the Judiciary.
During the government Fernando Henrique Cardoso, it became clear that the Executive would assume the role of deciding what would be the main themes of discussion in
Brazilian society. The economic policy, the privatizations, the (attempted) reforms in Social Security and Public Administration were some of the themes almost entirely
conducted by the Executive, with little interference (in the essence of the proposed strategies) by the Legislative.
The Legislative, if loosing the power to propose new policies, is assuming more and more the role of overseeing the Executive. The Constitution, article 71, instituted an
Accounting Office - the Tribunal de Contas da Uniao -, as an auxiliary of the Legislative; however the efficacy of the TCU (whose Judges are nominated by the same people
who will be audited) is often put in question.
Much more effective have been the investigative actions of Probe Committees - ComisSão Parlamentar de Inquerito (CPI) -, by members of Senate or Chamber or both, in
accordance to article 58 of Constitution. Helped by an absolutely free press, these Probe Committees have been proving effective in investigating major misconducts
(President Collor was impeached based on the conclusions of a CPI; later on, he was declared non guilty by the Supreme Court) and, indirectly, keeping corruption out
of government.
Still, the Executive is too powerful. Part of the power is financial. The Brazilian budget is authorizative, not impositive. The amounts quoted in the Budget are just
limits which can't be surpassed, not values which must be spent. The Executive controls how much of the budget is "executed", or, in other words, how much of the money
is actually spent. The budget execution depends on the actual cashflow of the Treasury, and, as well, on the conveniences of the Executive; it's not uncommon to observe
that the approval of relevant laws is preceeded by release of funds for budgetary projects of Senators and Deputies.
The Constitution also contributes to the overpowering of the Executive. Article 62 of Constitution states that, in cases of relevancy and urgency, the President may edit
Provisory Measures; such measures have immediate enforcement as law, and must (and usually are) be aproved by Congress. All Presidents have made a liberal use of this power.
- The Judiciary:
All first entry Judges must be approved in public examinations, wich are focused on juridical knowledge and zero weight to political factors. The higher the hierarchy,
the higher the political influence on the nomination of Judges; in the limit, all Justices of Supreme Court are appointed by the President of Republic - but only take
office after approval of the Senate.
Occasionally, cases of corruption of Judges are made public; such cases are investigated, and the penalties are applied. Much more serious than corruption is the slowness
of Brazilian Justice; a combination of scarcity of Judges, excess of legal appeals and lack of control on productivity cause the Justice to be very slow (and, consequently,
ineffective).
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