Nowadays, countries structure their governments on the basis of presidential and parliamentary systems. In the presidential system, the republican regime, as in Brazil, the president-elect receive popular mandate to govern for a certain period of time while in the parliamentary system, the republican or monarchical regimes, the majority party in parliament is tasked to choose the first -Minister, structuring the required parliamentary majority to govern and set up his office. If the majority party cannot compose a new government, new parliamentary elections would be held. In the presidential system, can take place the elected president rule without possessing the necessary parliamentary majority, a fact that constitutes political instability factor difficult to overcome as it has been in Brazil for many years, and particularly in the current situation. Unlike the parliamentary system that enables the replacement of the incumbent government by another in times of political crisis, the presidential system hinders this type of solution given that the elected president can only be dismounted from power legally during his tenure in case of a crime committed or by force through coup d'etat.
1. BRAZIL: FUTURE THREATENED
Fernando Alcoforado *
Nowadays, countries structure their governments on the basis of presidential and
parliamentary systems. In the presidential system, the republican regime, as in Brazil,
the president-elect receive popular mandate to govern for a certain period of time while
in the parliamentary system, the republican or monarchical regimes, the majority party
in parliament is tasked to choose the first -Minister, structuring the required
parliamentary majority to govern and set up his office. If the majority party cannot
compose a new government, new parliamentary elections would be held. In the
presidential system, can take place the elected president rule without possessing the
necessary parliamentary majority, a fact that constitutes political instability factor
difficult to overcome as it has been in Brazil for many years, and particularly in the
current situation.
Unlike the parliamentary system that enables the replacement of the incumbent
government by another in times of political crisis, the presidential system hinders this
type of solution given that the elected president can only be dismounted from power
legally during his tenure in case of a crime committed or by force through coup d'etat.
In Brazil, the President of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff, served his first term without
counting the parliamentary majority to govern. Due to this fact, Dilma Rousseff had to
make huge concessions to parties allied of his party, PT, in terms of commissioned
positions in government that already exceed 20,000, as well as the creation of
unnecessary ministries that reached 39 in their management.
Dilma Rousseff was reelected without counting on the support of the majority of
Brazil's population considering that 60% of the electorate voted for her and her party,
the PT, did not obtain the necessary parliamentary majority to govern. To govern,
Rousseff has to promote the composition of PT with other allied parties. It was this that
contributed to the Lula government buy votes of legislators to gain support in
Parliament for the projects of his government, as demonstrated in the "mensalão"
process. In practice, with the presidential system in force in Brazil, the president
becomes a hostage of allied parties as happened with Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Lula
and Dilma Rousseff.
While the Brazilian political system is plastered with a presidential system inefficient
like the current, incapable of ordering the life of the Brazilian nation on new
foundations, the economic crisis gets worse with each passing day and the results are
there: meager economic growth, inflation up goal, external imbalances, stagnant
productivity and, now backward in the social achievements. In overcoming the current
economic crisis, the obstacle represented by presidential political system in effect adds
to the political and administrative incompetence of Dilma Rousseff as President of the
Republic. The difficulty of ensuring the governance of the Brazilian nation within the
framework of presidentialism contributes towards making arise propositions and actions
to forcibly dismount the current power holders.
Clearly, if the parliamentary existed in Brazil, it would be easier to get out of the current
impasse with the replacement of a Congress and an incompetent government with the
call for new parliamentary elections. The institutional impasse in which the Brazilian
nation lives raises questions about the future of Brazil whose solution will not come any
time soon. The economic crisis and the political-institutional crisis, together, can lead to
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2. dissatisfaction of broad social sectors and create a Hobbesian situation characterized by
economic and social chaos that could only be resolved by a strong central government,
ie, with the implementation of a dictatorial system that needs to be avoided at all costs.
* Fernando Alcoforado , member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011)
and Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
among others.
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