Lec 5- successful coups Flashcards
constitutional basis of executive orders
def: a form of presidential legislation or executive lawmaking in the sense that they provide the president with the ability to make a general policy with broad applicability a kin to public law
- they allow the president to bypass the legislature and execute laws
brazil in 1964
second largest country in the Americas
8th largest economy in the world
largest commodity sector in mining
both institutionally stable and unstable but never had civil war or revolution
immigration to brazil
1870-1930: 2-3 million migrants arrived in brazil
high degree of ethnic mixing: 43% of brazilians identify as ‘pardos’ (mixed)
thus racial categories are both fluid and fixed and “whiteness” is prized but ambiguously defined
compared to U.S. only 6.9% are mixed race
capitalism and racism
relatively few indigenous ppl. in Brazil: around 1-6 million
1500: colonization began, portugese settlers brought enslaved people to brazil to establish a sugar based plantation
over four centeuries, brazil imported 4 million african slaves and maintained it until 1888 which is longer than anywhere in the americas. with the support of the catholic church the death toll was higher than in the U.S.
was slavery simply in service of capital?
following Anthony Marx, the separation of labor, capital, and rents, that is, the separation of workers from the fruits of their labor (which accrue to capital), does create a tendency to drive wages to the lowest possible level.
no labor is cheaper than slave labor
but when industrialization arrived in the southeast, there was no segregation or apartheid
racism justified slavery, segregation, and apartheid independent of capitalism’s needs
but slavery ended in brazil, it was not…
followed by segregation (the U.S.) or apartheid (South Africa)
Anthony Marx believed slavery was nationwide so there was no particular region that suffered more than another (US South)
no intrawhite conflict exists in Brazil because abandoning slavery did not threaten white privilege.
brought real benefits
not the same wave of lynching and mob violence seen in U.S. and South Africa
more mixing leads to much less segregation in Brazil compared to the U.S.
downside: identity, as the state wanted, remained more fragmented and harder to mobilize
which made it harder to challenge a structural racial hierarchy and more subtle forms of racism
whitening brazil
the brazilian government actively engouraged european migration to dilute the african imprint in brazilian society
1902: italizn government banned labor migration to Brazil in response to appalling conditions
led Rio to turn to Japanese migrants
since 1980s less oversea economic and more latino migration
brazilian political history
import substitution industrialization in 1930s lead to tarrifs that encouraged domestic economy
industrial boom underpinned increased workers’ wages and welfare policies
unable to control inflation and political instability and Janio Quadros resigned in 1961
then vice president joao Goulart becomes president
core opposition
Goulart (military opposed) only allowed to take office by ammending the constitution, transforming a presidential into parliamentary system and handing power to a PM
U.S. military viewed Goulart as a communist and the military as an island of sanity in an unstable system
U.S. embassy actively supported his ouster; CIA had funded anti-Goulart pressure groups and red-scare propaganda since 1960
end of brazilian democracy
march 31: military launches a coup
goulart: fearing civil war does not call on state militias or a mass uprising he flees to uruguay
military regime installed with Couto e Silva and then Costelo Branco as president
dictatorship lasts until 1985
how did it happen?
standard account: open U.S. hostility to Goulart, CIA funding of opposition, explicit approval of the coup
institutional account: brazilian instituions made a coup far more likely; indeed it would not have happened without them
4th republic institutions
separate election of
1. the president
2. vice president, and
3. the legislature
the result
institutional propensity to deadlock
parties were also weak so systems were unable to cope with expanded electorate and partisan identities were weak
which resulted in brazil governed by a series of changing cabinets where politicians shifted from one party to another
was thus a recipe for deadlock under even ideal circumstances
institutions were reminiscent of the French Fourth Republic
brazil in the early 1960s
- brazil had urbanized and industrialized but sectoral interests sought to manipulate the system for political and financial gain
- economic growth stagnated and inflation
- forced Goulart into a stabilization program that involved painful spending cuts
- as a result: middle class was less committed to a system that appeared to fail them
by 1963
- economic crisis
- weak and heterogeneous political parties with centres in the stagnant countryside rather than affluent cities
- a formally powerful but in practice weak president who could not unite the parties
- president eventually retreated to his base ramping up the leftist and nationalist rhetoric which alienated the americans and the one relatively unified state institution.
- a cohesive armed forces accustomed to stepping into the political vacuum at times of economic crisis and political instability/chaos
brazil under military rule
Goulart had no stomach for civil war so he moved aimlessly between his ranches before seeking refuge in Urukuay
costa e silva rules as a dictator until castelo branco became president on April 15
U.S. recognized the new regime immediately
**Castelo Branco **basnned parties and ruled by decree. tortures, disappearances and arrests became common
conclusion
brazil faced serious economic challenges in the 1950s-1960s
the institutions (separation of the president, vice president and the legislature, the weakness of the parties, the power of the regions, and the cohesion and weak state penetration of the military made the coup far more likely.
under a parliamentary regime or a semi-presidential one, the coup would not have happened. Brazil was a presidential republic
was not just foreign intervention but institutional weaknesses exacerbated them.
