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Brazil as a Democracy

In: Social Issues

Submitted By brandonc93
Words 1647
Pages 7
Brandon Cerretani
Comparative Politics Brazil Paper
Peter Kingstone
04/17/12
Brazil as a “Democracy”
Brazil’s government has been through a lot of change in recent history. Prior to the new Constitution in 1988, the nation was run as a dictatorship. Now, with the aid of a new Constitution, many steps have been taken in the direction towards a democracy. In fact, many sources will tell you that Brazil is now democracy, due to the façade that we see from the outside looking in. Even so, with such a large portion of Brazil’s population being poor who barely see any benefits from the so called democracy, I believe that Brazil is not a democracy. Democracies are meant to have fair elections, give the people a strong voice in politics, protect the people, give the people a sense of power and social standing, and generally please the majority of the population while being a government of the people. Granted, we know from our own nation that a democracy does not always please all of the people, but it is designed around the idea that it will please the majority of the people. As we will see, many of the things needed to have a strong democracy are present in Brazil, but many things are either corrupted, not what they seem, or just don’t play out to do what they are meant to do.
In order to understand why it is hard to consider Brazil a democracy, we must first examine how the government has evolved into what is thought to be a Democracy. Before the new Constitution in 1988, Brazil was believed to be undergoing the last stages of transitioning into a Democracy from a Dictatorship. It wasn’t until this Constitution did we truly begin to see social rights become a detailed issue of concern. Also, the structure of the Electoral System was very fragmented, with no single party being substantially more popular than the others, leaving an opportunity for a president

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