Institutional Acts

Institutional Acts, decrees issued by Brazil's military regime during the 1960s to provide legal justification for its assumption of greater power. Designed to restructure the political system, the seventeen Institutional Acts, of which the first and fifth are most significant, enabled the regime to establish an authoritarian government.

The first Institutional Act was announced on 9 April 1964, eight days after a military coup had left the office of the presidency vacant. Under this act, the chief executive could cancel electoral mandates, suppress individual political rights, and suspend constitutional liberties. The act limited the power of Congress by forbidding it to increase the amount of any expenditure measures submitted by the president and giving it only thirty days to consider executive-proposed amendments to the constitution. Another provision of the act established an electoral college that chose General Humberto Castelo Branco to lead the new government.

The military regime hoped to maintain popular support while using the first Institutional Act to create a national security state capable of eliminating subversion. When the government's party fared poorly in the October 1965 elections, however, hard-liners convinced Castelo Branco to issue a second Institutional Act. This act's strictures, viewed as temporary measures needed to ensure the regime's control over government, abolished the existing political parties, provided for the indirect election of the president, restricted the amount of time Congress could consider legislation before it automatically became law, and stipulated that persons accused of crimes against national security were to be subject to military justice.

Brazil's next president, General Artur Costa E Silva, was aligned with the less moderate military faction. On 13 December 1968, in response to student protests, labor strikes, and congressional noncompliance, he issued his first Institutional Act, the fifth overall. This notorious act suspended constitutional and individual liberties and signaled an attempt by hard-liners to increase the military regime's control over Brazil. In the following year, the government issued twelve Institutional Acts of lesser significance but accompanied by Supplementary Acts and other decrees that canceled upcoming elections, suspended Congress indefinitely, and further expanded the powers of the executive.

See alsoBrazil: Since 1889; Castello Branco, Humberto de Alencar.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Maria Helena Moreira Alves, State and Opposition in Military Brazil (1985).

Thomas Skidmore, The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil, 1964–85 (1988).

Alfred Stepan, Rethinking Military Politics (1988).

Additional Bibliography

Gaspari, Elio. A ditadura envergonhada. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2002.

Gaspari, Elio. A ditadura escancarada. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2002.

                                           Michael Poll