THE populist republic is the name used to talk about the period in Brazil's history that runs from 1945 to 1964 and which became better known among historians as Fourth Brazilian Republic. It was characterized by presenting a democratic period that was compressed between two dictatorial periods (new state and Military dictatorship).
Brazilian Presidents of the Fourth Republic
Over the 19 years of this period, Brazil had the following presidents:
Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1946-1951)
Getulio Vargas (1951-1954)
Café Filho (1954-1955)
Carlos Luz (1955)
Nereus Ramos (1955-1956)
Juscelino Kubitschek (1956-1961)
Janio Quadros (1961)
Ranieri Mazzilli (1961)
João Goulart (1961-1964)
During the Fourth Republic, elections were held in the following years: 1945, 1950, 1955 and 1960. The presidential election that would take place in 1965 was canceled because of the installation of the Military Dictatorship in the country after the 1964 coup.
Politics in the Fourth Republic
The Fourth Republic was characterized by the return of multipartyism (existence of several political parties) in the country – something that had been prohibited with the Estado Novo. This happened in the last months of the government of Getúlio Vargas (president of the country at that time), who enacted some reforms with the aim of remaining in power (Vargas was being pressured to to waive).
The return of political parties in the country occurred with the Additional Act. The three biggest were:
National Democratic Union (UDN): liberal and conservative oriented party located on the right of the political spectrum.
Social Democratic Party (PSD): center party that was created by Vargas's former interventors. It was the biggest political party of the Fourth Republic.
Brazilian Labor Party (PTB): party created by Getúlio Vargas in order to pursue the policy of approximation with the masses. Throughout the Fourth Republic, it took on a center-left project.
All presidential elections in that period had the leading role of these three parties. In 1945 and 1955, they won candidates from the PTB/PSD ticket; in 1950, it won the PTB candidate and, in 1960, a udenista candidate (UDN) won the presidential race.
Main events of the Fourth Republic
The Fourth Republic was very marked by the strong industrialization that the country underwent, especially during the years of the JK government. In addition, in this period of two decades, Brazil experienced a great leap in its urban population, a as the existing problems in the countryside forced the rural population to move to urban centers.
This process was accompanied by a lot of social tension, since several serious problems in our society were accentuated. The lack of housing, the difficulty of access to means of transport and the problems with food and education contributed to increase social inequalities in the country. For this reason, the lower strata of society joined social movements.
The first president of this period was the general Eurico Gaspar Dutra, winner of the 1945 election. The military defeated Eduardo Gomes and had the support of Getúlio Vargas to win the victory. Dutra's government was characterized by conservatism and the application of a liberal policy in the economy, but it failed.
The government of Eurico Gaspar Dutra was also characterized by the persecution of communists, evidenced by the closure of the Brazilian Communist Party in 1947 and with the rupture of diplomatic relations between Brazil and the Soviet Union, which was a communist country.
Also access: Cold War
O second president of the period was Getúlio Vargas, who returned to the presidency for the second time – this time in a democratic way. Vargas' government was marked by a great deal of political unrest. Vargas tried to implement an economic development policy with a nationalist character and with greater state intervention in the economy.
This policy had as a symbol the creation of Petrobras, a state company that had the monopoly of oil exploration in Brazil from 1953. The political crisis began with the mobilization of conservative groups, led by the UDN, against the government. The government's greatest adversary was journalist Carlos Lacerda.
Vargas' second government also had great popular mobilization because of the rising cost of living in the country and the government's inefficiency in fighting inflation. In this context, Vargas declared a 100% increase in the minimum wage, which infuriated the business and the military in the country.
The crisis of the Vargas government intensified with the Tonelero Street attack. This attack took place in August 1954 and was an attempt to assassinate Carlos Lacerda (a great opponent of the government). The attack, however, was a failure. Investigations carried out at the time concluded that the crime had been ordered by Gregory Fortunato, head of security for Getúlio Vargas.
Vargas was not involved in the attack, but in any case, the event marked his government, and the president was pressured to resign. Politically isolated, Vargas committed suicide on August 24, 1954. After that, the Brazilian presidency was assumed by three different names until Juscelino Kubitschek took office: CoffeeSon, CarlosLight and Nereusbranches.
Juscelino Kubitschek took over in 1956 and started a government that was characterized by a policy of industrialization and modernization of the country. JK's inauguration, however, was only possible because the Minister of War, Henrique Teixeira Lott, carried out a countercoup that dismantled conservative groups that planned to prevent JK's inauguration. This became known as Preventive Coup of 1955.
JK's government implemented the Goals plan, a bold economic plan that intended to create the infrastructure necessary for the country to support the industrialization in progress. As a result, areas such as transport, electricity production and port infrastructure received massive investments, but other areas were placed in a secondary position.
JK's government was also marked by taking forward the daring project to build a new capital for the country: Brasilia. The construction of Brasília took place on an accelerated scale, and a huge amount of resources were used to complete the work. After the five years of JK's government, Brazil had achieved expressive industrial growth, but old problems, such as inflation, remained troubling.
In 1961, he took over Janio Quadros, the first president elected by the UDN. Jânio was a conservative politician and won the presidency with an expressive vote. Jânio's government, however, was extremely troubled. The president made decisions that were extremely unpopular.
After six months of government, Jânio Quadros chose to to waive the country's presidency – a measure that had the immediate acceptance of Brazilian parliamentarians. The country lived approximately two weeks of deep political crisis with the risk of civil war. This was because of the presidential succession. Some were against Jango's possession, and others were in favour.
João Goulart (Jango) took office on September 7, 1961 under the parliamentary regime – purposely implemented to limit presidential powers. João Goulart regained his full presidential powers from January 1963 and tried to carry out a project of structural reforms in strategic areas of the country: the Basic Reforms.
Opposition to the Basic Reforms was gigantic, as the big business and conservative groups had no interest in implementing the changes proposed by Jango. The result of the opposition of these groups was a coup articulation, which also had the support of the middle class, religious groups, liberals and the USA.
The articulation of these groups resulted in the realization of a civil-military coup. Between March 31 and April 9, 1964, there was the military rebellion against Jango, his removal of the presidency by representatives of the Legislature and the implementation of the Military Dictatorship in the country. This marked the end of the democratic period known as the Fourth Republic.
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