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. 29 n. 2 Rio de Janeiro 1986
Abstract
Starting with the assumption that a high rotation rate of officeholders in the Executive indicates political-administrative instability, as it obstructs the implementation of important public policies and/or thwarts any attempt at rationalizing the administrative machinery, the author examines the changes in the composition of ministerial cabinets between 1822 and 1889. She uses two indicators for this: the ministerial rotation rate, obtained by calculating the average stay of a minister in office; and the degree of governmental stability, arrived at by comparing the ministerial rotation rate with the total duration of the government period. According to the author, in contrast to the Illusory political stability of the Empire - considered from the angle of the legitimacy of transmission of power from the chief of the Government - the rapide succession of ministerial cabinets, added to the various occasions on which Parliament was dissolved, mark the Empire as a time of governmental instability, with alternating periods of high and low stability. Periods of high stability were generally preceded by the dissolution of Parliament, with the consequent transfer of the discussion of critical questions to a small circle made up of members of the elite, and passage of new electoral laws that altered the rules of political competition. Periods of low stability were, for the most part, presided over by liberal ministers and dominated by a schedule of debates largely composed of matters about which consensus among elites was low.
Estabilidade Governamental e Rotatividade de Elites Políticas no Brasil Imperial
Português do Brasil
Español