History of Brazilian Federalism: From the First Republic to the Dictatorship of Vargas

The study of the evolution of Brazilian federalism, adopted on the occasion of the proclamation of the Republic, in 1889, is undertaken on the basis of the juridical and political analysis of the Brazilian constitutional texts of 1891, 1934 and 1937 and their respective amendments. The scrutiny of these juridical sources unveils the difficulties and advantages arising from the adoption of an imported federative model, emulated from the experience of the United States of America (USA), which had little connection with the country’s local reality and peculiarities. The evolution of Brazilian federalism produced juridical innovations in the Constitution, such as the inclusion of concurrent competences between federal entities, the elevation of Municipalities to the status of federal subject and changes in the regional division of the country. The anomalies that arose due to the excessive decentralization of the First Brazilian Republic led to the internal political crisis, but were compensated by a period of significant political centralization during the government of Getúlio Vargas. A pronounced trend towards the concentration of power in the hands of the State, which took place during the 1930s and 1940s, led to the establishment of a dictatorial model of government in the Brazilian «New State» period. In this context, the centralized government sought to change the existing regional division of the country to tackle a perceived hypertrophic influence of local authorities. It is revealed that, throughout its constitutional history, Brazilian law has oscillated between periods of political centralization and decentralization, with direct effects on the geographic and spatial organization of the country.

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