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. 30 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 1987
Abstract
This paper focuses on the attempted formation of political parties in Rio de Janeiro during the early years of the Republic and on the practices of dominant groups during electoral periods. Identified with a liberal proposal with restrictions on popular participation, these groups succeeded in demarcating a legitimate zone for political dispute and in controlling this dispute in the Federal District, yet failed in their intention to construct stable party organizations. Municipal politics grew out of competition among clienteles rooted in the notion of "political friendship" and swapping favors; however, the power of clientele leaders over the electorate was weakened both by the fragmentation of spheres of social life characteristic of an expanding urban milieu like Rio, and by the federal government's control of key posts in the municipality. Hence the impossibility of the crystallization in power of a specific oligarchy, whose domination could be exercised only through a stable party. Yet, the exclusive character of oligarchic politics and its "veto power" over alternative forces in the political arena were maintained, chiefly through electoral fraud and violence, which resulted in one of the highest rates of electoral abstention in Brazil. Moreover, the political mentality of the time denied legitimacy to the political party dispute, associating it with the absorption of the public interest by private ones. The governmentalist parties formulated their project as the representation of "indivisible" national concerns rather than as one of "partisan" interests. This project acquired concrete expression in the system of dominant state parties that emerged as the political subjects of the Federation, with Campos Sales' "Governors' policy". Thus, the failure of the Federal District's political forces to forge a consolidated oligarchy party was a factor which disqualified them from membership in this "gentlemen's club".
Enferrujando o Sonho: Partidos e Eleições no Rio de Janeiro, 1889-1895
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