Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-t6hkb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T05:25:40.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The 1988 Constitution a Decade Later: Ugly Compromises Reconsidered

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Gary M. Reich*
Affiliation:
University of Kansas

Extract

October 1998 marked the tenth anniversary of the promulgation of Brazil’s most recent democratic constitution—and the debates about how to reform that same constitution have been going on just as long. The continuing efforts at constitutional reform in Brazil suggest the gravity of institutional choice in new democracies. The importance of “getting institutions right” is underscored, in political science, by the notion that institutional choices can undermine or solidify democratic rule.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Brazil. Senado Federal. 1998. Levantamento de medidas provisórias. http:www.senado.gov.brwebmedprovmpv.htm. Accessed 30 June 1998.Google Scholar
Brazil Report (London). 1987. 17 September: 2.Google Scholar
Brazil Report (London) 1988a. “Coup” a Much-Used Word in Brasíila. 7 January: 4.Google Scholar
Brazil Report (London) 1988b. Fears of Military Coup Allegedly Ensured Vote for Presidentialism. 28 April: 3.Google Scholar
Calvert, Randall. 1995. “Rational Actors, Equilibrium, and Social Institutions”. In Explaining Social Institutions, ed. Jack, Knight and Itai, Sened. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press. 5794.Google Scholar
Castro, Marcus Faro de. 1997. The Courts, Law, and Democracy in Brazil. International Social Science Journal 152 (June): 241–52.Google Scholar
Economist Intelligence Unit. 1997. Brazil: Country Profile, 1997–98. London : EIU Ltd.Google Scholar
Figueiredo, Argelina Cheibub, and Fernando, Limongi. 1997. O congresso e as medidas provisórias: abdicação ou delegação Novos Estudos 47 (March): 127–54.Google Scholar
Fleischer, David. 1990. The Constituent Assembly and the Transformation Strategy: Attempts to Shift Political Power from the Presidency to the Congress. In The Political Economy of Brazil: Public Policies in an Era of Transition, ed. Lawrence, Graham and Robert, Wilson. Austin : University of Texas Press. 210–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folha de São Paulo. 1987. Líderes no congresso reafirman apoio ao parlamentarismo. 16 September: A5.Google Scholar
Knight, Jack. 1992. Institutions and Social Conflict. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamounier, Bolívar. 1994. Brazil: Towards Parliamentarism? In The Failure of Presidential Democracy, ed. Juan, Linz and Arturo, Valenzuela. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. 253–93.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Johan, P. Olsen. 1989. Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York : Free Press.Google Scholar
Martínez-Lara, Javier. 1996. Building Democracy in Brazil: The Politics of Constitutional Change, 1985–1995. New York : St. Martin's Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, Timothy J. 1997. Why Brazil Slept: the Search for Political Institutions, 1985–1997. Paper presented at the conference of the Latin American Studies Association, Guadalajara, 17–19 April.Google Scholar
Power, Timothy J. 1998. The Pen is Mightier Than the Congress: Presidential Decree Power in Brazil. In Executive Decree Authority: Calling Out the Tanks or Filling Out the Forms? ed. John, Carey and Matthew, Shugart. New York : Cambridge University Press. 197230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, William H. 1986. The Art of Political Manipulation. New Haven : Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenn, Keith S. 1990. Brazil's New Constitution: an Exercise in Transient Constitutionalism for a Transitional Society. American Journal of Comparative Law 38 (Fall): 773802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schotter, Andrew. 1981. The Economic Theory of Social Institutions. New York : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth, and Barry, Weingast. 1981. Structure Induced Equilibrium and Legislative Choice. Public Choice 37: 503–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen, Sven, Steinmo, and Frank, Longstreth, eds. 1992. Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Veja (São Paulo). 1987a. A voz dos liberais. 4 February: 21.Google Scholar
Veja (São Paulo) 1987b. Tremor em Brasília. 4 November: 48.Google Scholar
Veja (São Paulo) 1987c. Reação conservadora. 11 November: 28–33, 40.Google Scholar