Executive Power: what it does, who exercises it, election

O Executive power It is one of powers in Brazil, composed of representatives of the population whose function is to take care of the public administration within the limits established by Brazilian law. Its representatives must follow these principles when in office: legality, impersonality, morality, publicity and efficiency.

The Executive Power is represented by the president of the republic and his ministers, the governors and their state secretaries and the mayors and their municipal secretaries. Its members have a term of office of four years and can be re-elected for another four years.

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Topics of this article

  • 1 - Summary on Executive Power
  • 2 - Characteristics of the Executive Branch
  • 3 - Who exercises the Executive Power in Brazil
  • 4 - How representatives of the Executive Power are elected
  • 5 - Theory of the Three Powers

Executive Branch Summary

  • It is one of the Powers that take care of public administration in Brazil.

  • Its function is to carry out the government of a certain place.

  • Its adoption was established and organized by the Constitution of 1988.

  • It is present in the theory of the Three Powers, formulated by Montesquieu.

  • It is represented by the president, governors and mayors.

Characteristics of the Executive Branch

The Executive is one of the Powers that exist in our country and that play a role in the administration of the State. It is represented by those elected to public governance positions and who must act in their government within the limits imposed by Brazilian law. In addition to governing the country, this power also administers public interests, always seeking the well-being of the population.

As part of the public administration, it is essential for representatives of the Executive Power to respect these five principles:legality, impersonality, morality, publicity and efficiency. The Executive Power acts as a representative of the population and, therefore, it is its role to serve its interests.

Its representatives are the President of the Republic and his ministers, the governors and their state secretaries, and the mayors and their municipal secretaries. As we will see, they are chosen by popular vote and are directly responsible for matters of collective interest, each in their own jurisdiction.

The Executive Branch, therefore, acts directly on important issues of public governance, such as public security, education, fiscal policy, among others. Given the importance of the work carried out, the distribution of power in our country means that the Legislature frequently supervises the Executive.

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Who exercises executive power in Brazil?

As mentioned, representatives of the Executive Power in Brazil are:

  • O president of republic and his ministers;

  • O governor and its state secretaries;

  • O mayor and their municipal secretaries.

The adoption of the division into Three Powers and the functioning of each are determined by the Federal Constitution, enacted in 1988.

Within the executive branch, the president and the maximum authority and is elected to administer Brazil. Therefore, its performance takes place at the federal level, being the Chief Executive in the entire Brazilian territory. One of its main attributions is the approval or veto of laws passed in the Legislative.

He also takes care of strategic matters regarding the well-being of the population and must guarantee the interests of the country. The ministers who coordinate the ministries are chosen by the president himself, who is also responsible for other important appointments, as established by the Constitution.

already the governor elected to govern a state, and in our country there are 27 governors, representing the 26 Brazil states plus the Federal District. Brazil has governors, as it adopts the federalism in their public administration, which allows states to have autonomy and form their own governments.

The governor is directly responsible for the administration of the state for which he was elected, and must obtain, with the Federal Government, funds that will be invested in the development of his state. It also takes care of education, health and public safety and sanctions or vetoes bills passed in the state legislature.

Finally, the mayors they are the representatives of the Executive Power at the municipal level, being responsible for the administration of the city in which they reside and for which they were elected. The mayor takes care of municipal resources and applies them to ensure the functioning of public services. It should also manage areas such as education and health.

Mayors, as in other executive positions, can sanction or veto projects approved by the councilors, representatives of the Legislative Power at the municipal level. Mayors must work with the governor of their state to guarantee resources that can be applied to the development of their municipality.

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How are Executive Branch Representatives Elected?

The choice of those who represent the Brazilian population in the Executive Branch follows the criteria established for the brazilian electoral system. Therefore, elections for president, governors and mayors follow the same criteria, with one exception, which we will see in a moment. First, we need to know that the representatives of the Executive are elected to four-year terms, with the possibility of re-election for another four years.

The criterion used is the absolute majority, which requires candidates to have more than 50% of the votes to be elected. If this does not happen in the first round, the two most voted advance to a second round, which will decide the dispute. The exception is for cities with less than 200,000 voters, as the contest is held in a single round, requiring only a simple majority.

Three Powers Theory

Politically, Brazil is organized within the theory of the Three Powers, a principle of political science which defends the existence of Three Powers to carry out public administration. These Powers are autonomous from each other and must monitor each other to avoid abuse of power.

The theory, therefore, promotes decentralization of power, since government attributions are distributed among the different Powers, preventing just one person from concentrating all these functions. Originally, this theory was formulated with the aim of preventing the concentration of power from being transformed into tyranny.

This idea was popularized through the work of Montesquieu, thinker illuminist who proposed this tripartite division as a way of reducing the accumulation of powers that monarchs had in the absolutism. He proposed the creation of exactly the following Powers: Executive, Legislative and Judiciary.

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Image credits:

[1] Celso Pupo and shutterstock

by Daniel Neves
History teacher

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