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During its independent political history, Brazil has had seven constitutions. The most recent was ratified on October 5, 1988. ==Imperial Constitution (1824)== Background Prior to its independence, on September 7, 1822, Brazil had no formal Constitution, since Portugal only adopted its first Constitution on September 23, 1822, 16 days after Brazilian self-proclaimed emancipation.〔http://www.arqnet.pt/portal/portugal/liberalismo/const822.html〕 In 1823, the Emperor Pedro I started the political process of writing a Constitution. The elaboration of the first Constitution of Brazil was quite difficult and the power struggle involved resulted in a long-lasting unrest that plagued the country for nearly two decades. Two major facts increased the troubles: * Large numbers of recent immigrants from Portugal (the so-called "Portuguese Party"), who wanted to keep their privileges or who were still loyal to the metropolitan government. These were found both among the wealthier parts of the population, as businessmen controlling Brazil's international trade, and the lower ones, as tradesmen and free urban workers (the Brazilian élite was mostly rural). * The majority of the population was composed of slaves, prompting the whites to fear being massacred in the event of a rebellion caused by a failing state. The first circumstance meant that despite strong support of the crown prince Pedro I by the Brazilian landowners (the so-called "Brazilian Party"), the opinions of the ''reinóis'' (name then given to people fresh from Portugal) should be considered. As each side had very distinct and different objectives none could prevail and a compromise was needed. There were extra problems involved: the Constitutional Assembly had been elected to decide the applicability of Portuguese laws in Brazil, not to draft a new constitution. As a result, some of the Portuguese deputies refused to take part in it. On the other hand, some of the Brazilian deputies, the "liberal" ones, had been persecuted, some exiled others imprisoned. Thus the Constitutional Assembly did not hear an appreciable number of opinions and would end reflecting the objectives of the "Brazilian Party", to the detriment of the "Portuguese Party" and the liberals. As the draft constitution progressed it became clear that the deputies were trying to establish a constitution that would: * curtail the powers of the monarch, * restrict most political rights to landowners and deny them to the Portuguese, and * establish an authoritarian, but constitutional monarchy, whose head of government would be the Emperor himself, aided by a group of ministers of his choice. The emperor wanted to remain an absolute monarch, protect the interests of the Portuguese businessmen (while possibly mending the relationship with Portugal in the meantime) and prevent any form of power transfer from himself to the Parliament. In a quite predictable move, and in the light of the wave of conservatism led by the Holy Alliance, the prince used his influence over the Brazilian army to dissolve the Constitutional Assembly, in what became known as the Night of Agony, and imposed on the country a constitution that concentrated all powers on the prince himself (eventually crowned "Perpetual Emperor and Protector of Brazil"). The Constitution The new constitution, published on March 25, 1824 outlined the existence of four powers: * Executive — The State Council * Legislative — The General Assembly, formed by the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies * Judiciary — The Courts * ''Moderator'' — Vested in the Emperor, was supposed to resolve any incompatibilities between the other three, acting as a "neutral" power, in accordance to the theories of the Swiss thinker Benjamin Constant. The Emperor controlled the Executive by nominating the members of the State Council, influenced the Legislative by being allowed to propose motions and having the power to dissolve the Chamber of Deputies (senators sat for life, being, however, individually chosen by the emperor between the three most voted candidates in a given province) and also influenced the Judiciary, by appointing (for life) the members of the Highest Court. This constitution established the Brazilian Empire as a Unitary state (the provinces had little autonomy, if any). The Amendment (''Ato Adicional'') of August 12, 1834, enacted in a period of liberal reform, authorized the provinces to create their own legislative chambers, which were empowered to legislate on financial matters, create taxes and their own corps of civil servants under a chief executive nominated by the central power; it was however revised by an "interpretive" act of May 1840, enacted in a period of conservative reaction, which allowed the central power to appoint judges and police officers in the provinces. On July 20, 1847, a Decree (number 523) established the post of President of the Council of Ministers (not to be confused with the State Council, whose ten members sat for life and which in the late Empire functioned solely as an advising body to the Emperor) – actually a prime minister chosen by the emperor, who should choose the members of the cabinet, being supported by a parliamentary majority in the General Assembly. As no act of the Executive was valid without the signature of the minister ("State Secretary") responsible for the issue concerned, the decree turned the Brazilian Empire into a standard constitutional monarchy with a Parliamentary system. The franchise was very limited, being censitary and indirect: no male citizen who was not head of a household and/or had a net yearly income of less than a hundred milreis was allowed to vote in the primary elections that chose actual electors, empowered with the right to vote for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.〔On the requisites to the franchise on various levels, see Chapter VI of the Constitution, according to the text available at ()〕 This conservative slant - together with widespread electoral frauds - determined that no Prime Minister chosen by the Emperor – who had the power to order the dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies and new elections to it – ever failed to win a parliamentary majority in subsequent elections.〔 〕 The Constitution of 1824, enacted in the name of the Holy Trinity, also instituted Catholicism as the state religion, allowing other religions to be practised in private: non-Catholic places of worship couldn't be fashioned to appear as religious buildings from the outside. It also excluded slaves from the Brazilian citizenship, by extending it to all people born in the Brazilian territory, if freeborn or freed.〔(Cf. arts. 5 and 6 of the Constitution of 1824, available at )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the Constitution of Brazil」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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