Governo representativo e legislação eleitoral no Brasil do Século XIX

Abstract

This article takes as its premise the thesis that the Brazilian constitutional monarchy was a representative government, considering the characteristics of representative governments in the nineteenth century. Among these features was the presence of fraud in elections, common at that time in all countries that have adopted this model of government. But at the same time, there was a commitment by the political elite to combat fraud through legislation. In this article I analyze the parliamentary debate and electoral legislation enacted during the nineteenth century in order to demonstrate that there was a consistent effort of the Brazilian political elite to curb fraud in elections, particularly the interference of government. A long-term analysis reveals the existence of acumulative process of concrete experience related to concerns about the functioning of institutions, without disregarding the determinations of the immediate context and the articulation of certain interests, were they of the social sector, or related to power struggles between political groups.