Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 54 n. 3 Rio de Janeiro 2011
Abstract
The voting rate in Brazil only reached 40% (considered consistent with a modern democracy) in the 1980s. However, the bibliography always refers to the 1986, 1945, and 1933 elections as moments of 're-democratization', when explicitly or implicitly the original 'democracy' could only have existed during the fraudulent and oligarchic First Republic (1889-1930). This article focuses on the process by which the 19th century Brazilian elites slowly forged this purely liberal-institutional concept of democracy, with extensive repercussions during the following century. The concept found its symbol in the 'starched collar democracy' to which Teófilo Ottoni referred in his campaign in 1860, limited to the educated and moneyed stratum of the population, and reclaimed by the UDN party in the 1945 presidential campaign.
Keywords: history of concepts, democracy, Brazil, 19th century
DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582011000300004
From riffraff despotism to starched collar democracy: a history of the concept of democracy in Brazil (1770-1870)
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