Prime Minister of Brazil

The Duke of Caxias, was the foremost and most remembered Prime Minister of Brazil, having served three terms.

During two periods in the political history of Brazil was a parliamentary system of Government put in place, with a prime minister heading the Cabinet.

The first parliamentary system was created by Emperor Pedro II and was maintained for the last forty two years of the imperial period.

The second occasion in which a parliamentary system was put in place was during the administration of President João Goulart in 1961, due to a constitutional amendment passed by his opponents before his inauguration. The experience of parliamentary government was very brief, as the system of presidential government was restored in a referendum in 1963.

President of the Council of Ministers of the Empire of Brazil (1847–1889)

Prime minister of the Empire of Brazil
Formation 22 August 1847
First holder The 2nd Viscount of Caravelas
Final holder The Viscount of Ouro Preto
Abolished 15 November 1889

The political position of Prime Minister of Brazil existed during the era of the Empire of Brazil, first being created in 1847, during the reign of Dom Pedro II.

Officially, the title of the Prime Minister was President of the Council of Ministers and he was referred to by the press and the people as President of the Cabinet. Often, the title President of the Council, a shortened version of the official style, was also employed.

The written Constitution of the Brazilian Empire did not require the Emperor to appoint a prime minister; nor did it provide for a parliamentary system of government, instead vesting the Executive authority in the Emperor himself, and stipulating that the Emperor was to be aided by ministers that he was free to appoint and dismiss. However, Emperor Pedro II decided to appoint a president of the Council among his ministers, to lead the workings of the Government. He also chose to create a sort of parliamentary government, whereby the prime minister would be someone who could command a majority in the Chamber of Deputies, the lower House of the Brazilian Imperial Parliament, known as General Assembly. Therefore, even without being required by the Constitution, the Emperor started to exercise his authority in a manner compatible with parliamentary government, only appointing as prime minister someone who could retain parliamentary support, etc.

However, the emperor didn't become a figurehead monarch like other heads of State in a parliamentary system. The prime minister needed to retain the political confidence both of a majority of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Emperor, who actively scrutinized the workings of the Government. Sometimes the Emperor would dissolve the Chamber of Deputies and summon new elections (a power he possessed under the Constitution), or dismiss the prime minister, due to his own political beliefs about the efficiency of the Government. Thus, the Emperor would often dismiss a prime minister, and then appoint someone else from the same party. All this led to a succession of short-lived Cabinets. The emperor retained decision-making powers with regard to the signature or veto of bills passed by Parliament, and would not always abide by the advice of his ministers. And that was seen as normal given that the monarch wasn't required by the Constitution to reign in a parliamentary system, and the establishment of one was only a limited and voluntary decision of Pedro II.

Therefore, the parliamentary system voluntarily established by Emperor Pedro II wasn't identical to the standard of a parliamentary government with a Head of State that reigns but does not govern, given that the Emperor retained part of the control over the daily affairs of his government. Thus, the parliamentary system that was put in place in the reign of Pedro II can be termed a semi-imperial Government, and can be compared to the political system of some republics, such as France, that are governed under a semi-presidential system, in which the Head of State has more than just the customary reserve powers, but there is also a prime minister who needs to maintain the confidence of Parliament in order to retain his office.

This co-existence of a Head of State with real powers and influence with a prime minister responsible before Parliament was dubbed by many Brazilian political scientists as parlamentarismo às avessas (backwards parliamentarism), a criticism corresponding to their view that, in the parliamentary system created by Emperor Pedro II, the Chamber of Deputies was the weaker party, and the survival of the Cabinet depended more on the confidence of the Emperor than in that of Parliament.

Shortcomings in party loyalty, with members of Parliament and groups of members rooting for their own interests and not always abiding by the directives of the party leadership also contributed greatly to short-lived Cabinets. Indeed, it was very common for a Prime Minister to be replaced due to lack of support from his party's backbenchers, causing the Prime Minister to be replaced with somebody else from the same party, during the same Parliament.

During the forty-nine years of Pedro II's personal reign, from 1840 until 1889 there were sixteen parliamentary elections (eleven provoked by the dissolution of Parliament by the Emperor at the Prime Minister's request, with the summoning of new elections, and five others provoked by the expiration of the term of office of the members of the Chamber of Deputies). This means that, on average, each legislature of the Chamber of Deputies had a life span slightly superior to three years. However, in the forty two years between the creation of the office of Prime Minister in 1847 and its abolition in 1889, there were thirty two appointments to the presidency of the Council, which means that prime ministerships lasted on average a little more than a year and four months. Certain politicians, however, like the Duke of Caxias, the Viscount, later Marquis of Olinda, and Zacarias Góis e Vasconcellos managed to regain the prime ministership after having lost it. Caxias and Zacarias Góis e Vasconcellos each served three times as President of the Council, while Olinda held the office of Prime Minister for a record of four times.

The president of the Council owed his position to both his party's majority in the Legislature (and to his party's willingness to support him in the Chamber) and to the Emperor, and these two sources of authority (parliamentary backing and imperial appointment) could sometimes come into conflict. 19th century abolitionist leader and historian Joaquim Nabuco said that the "President of the Council in Brazil was no Russian Chancellor, Sovereign's creature, nor a British Prime Minister, made only by the trust of the Commons: the delegation of the Crown was to him as necessary and important as the delegation of the Chamber, and, to exert with safety his functions, he had to dominate the caprice, the oscillations and ambitions of the Parliament, as well as to preserve always unalterable the favor, the good will of the Emperor.[1]"

The shortest prime-ministership was the first of the three periods of Zacarias Góis e Vasconcellos in office, when he occupied the presidency of the Council for just a few days in May 1862 before being replaced. The longest continuous prime-ministership corresponded to the period when the Viscount of Rio Branco was in office: he served as President of the Council from March 1871 until June 1875. The Viscount of Rio Branco served as Prime Minister only once, however, and his period of service as Prime Minister is surpassed by the total duration of the four non-consecutive premierships of the Marquis of Olinda, making Olinda the longest serving President of the Council if non-consecutive time is considered.

The position of prime minister was abolished with the deposition of the Monarchy in 1889.

List of Presidents of the Council of Ministers of the Empire of Brazil

Parties
  Liberal Party
  Progressive League
# Name Portrait Took Office Left Office Party
1 Manuel Alves Branco
2nd Viscount of Caravelas 		22 August 1847 8 March 1848 Liberal Party
2 José Carlos Pereira de Almeida Torres
Viscount of Macaé 		8 March 1848 31 March 1848 Liberal Party
3 Francisco de Paula Sousa e Melo 31 March 1848 29 September 1848 Liberal Party
4 Pedro de Araújo Lima
Viscount, later Marquis of Olinda 		29 September 1848 8 October 1849 Conservative Party
5 José da Costa Carvalho
Marquis of Monte Alegre 		8 October 1849 11 May 1852 Conservative Party
6 Joaquim Rodrigues Torres
Viscount of Itaborai 		11 May 1852 6 September 1853 Conservative Party
7 Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão
Marquis of Paraná 		6 September 1853 3 September 1856 Conservative Party
8 Luís Alves de Lima e Silva
Duke of Caxias (then Marquis) 		3 September 1856 4 May 1857 Conservative Party
9 Pedro de Araújo Lima
Marquis of Olinda 		4 May 1857 12 December 1858 Conservative Party
10 Viscount of Abaeté 12 December 1858 10 August 1859 Conservative Party
11 Baron of Uruguaiana 10 August 1859 2 March 1861 Conservative Party
12 Duke of Caxias (then Marquis) 2 March 1861 24 May 1862 Conservative Party
13 Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos 24 May 1862 30 May 1862 Progressive League
14 Marquis of Olinda 30 May 1862 15 January 1864 Progressive League
15 Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos 15 January 1864 31 August 1864 Progressive League
16 Francisco José Furtado 31 August 1864 12 May 1865 Liberal Party
17 Marquis of Olinda 12 May 1865 3 August 1866 Liberal Party
18 Zacarias de Góis e Vasconcelos 3 August 1866 16 July 1868 Liberal Party
19 Viscount of Itaboraí 16 July 1868 29 September 1870 Conservative Party
20 Viscount, later Marquis of São Vicente 29 September 1870 7 March 1871 Conservative Party
21 Viscount of Rio Branco 7 March 1871 25 June 1875 Conservative Party
22 Duke of Caxias 25 June 1875 5 January 1878 Conservative Party
23 Viscount of Sinimbu 5 January 1878 28 March 1880 Liberal Party
24 José Antônio Saraiva 28 March 1880 21 January 1882 Liberal Party
25 Martinho Álvares da Silva Campos 21 January 1882 3 July 1882 Liberal Party
26 Viscount, later Marquis of Paranaguá 3 July 1882 24 May 1883 Liberal Party
27 Lafayette Rodrigues Pereira 24 May 1883 6 June 1884 Liberal Party
28 Manuel Pinto de Sousa Dantas 6 June 1884 6 May 1885 Liberal Party
29 José Antônio Saraiva 6 May 1885 20 August 1885 Liberal Party
30 Baron of Cotegipe 20 August 1885 10 March 1888 Conservative Party
31 João Alfredo Correia de Oliveira 10 March 1888 7 June 1889 Conservative Party
32 Viscount of Ouro Preto 7 June 1889 15 November 1889 Liberal Party

The proclamation of the Republic as a coup to force the removal of the Prime Minister

The events of the Brazilian Proclamation of the Republic on November 15, 1889 started as an unprecedented military coup to remove the Prime Minister, who had been appointed by the Emperor and who enjoyed the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the General Assembly, the Empire's Parliament; Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, who as the senior military figure in the plot, assumed leadership of the movement, was supporter of the Conservative Party, and he took part in the coup because he was invited by other officers to lead the overthrowal of the Liberal Viscount of Ouro Preto from the Presidency of the Council, but although he intended to force a change of Prime Minister, initially Deodoro did not intend to depose Emperor Pedro II. Several of his co-conspirators, however, were Republicans, and later in the day the events of the military coup progressed to the deposition of the Monarchy. The decision to establish a republican Provisional Government was taken when Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca (who had already proclaimed "Long Live His Majesty the Emperor" during the public acts of the coup) received from his republican co-conspirator Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães the false news that the Emperor intended to appoint Gaspar da Silveira Martins, a declared enemy of Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, as the next Prime Minister in the Viscount of Ouro Preto's stead.

Once the Republic was proclaimed, a presidential Executive replaced the parliamentary system of Government.

President of the Council of Ministers of the United States of Brazil (1961–1963)

After the coup d'état that abolished the monarchy and proclaimed Brazil a republic, the system of parliamentary government was not retained. The new republic instead adopted the model of a presidential executive, except for a brief period (September 7, 1961 to January 23, 1963) during the presidency of President João Goulart.

The parliamentary system was adopted in 1961 as a compromise solution to a grave political crisis, and was again abolished, this time by plebiscite, in January 1963.

The official title of the head of the government during that period was President of the Council of Ministers, the same official title possessed by the 19th-century prime ministers of the Brazilian Empire. However, the holders of the office were informally addressed and referred to as Premier or Prime Minister. Often, the expression President of the Council, a simplified version of the official title, was also used.

List of Presidents of the Council of Ministers of the United States of Brazil

Parties
# Name Portrait Took office Left office Party
1 Tancredo de Almeida Neves 8 September 1961 12 July 1962 Social Democratic Party
2 Francisco de Paula Brochado da Rocha 12 July 1962 18 September 1962 Social Democratic Party
3 Hermes Lima 18 September 1962 23 January 1963 Brazilian Socialist Party

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Prime ministers of Brazil.

References

  1. ↑ Nabuco, Joaquim (1975). Um Estadista do Império. único (4 ed.). Rio de Janeiro: Nova Aguilar, p. 712
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