Brazilian Politics
Politics of Brazil takes place in a framework of a federal presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Brazil is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of the National Congress. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. Brazil is also divided into twenty-seven states, including the Federal District.
Brazil today is divided into a divided country. Driving through Sao Paulo one can see the separation of society. On the one hand there are small businesses, Favelas, the daily struggle for survival. On the other hand one sees the sky scrapers, the high street filled with designer shops and guarding them are private security guards which are also policemen. This segregation is the result of a network of embedded, autonomous and partly legitimate ties between the business and the state. The state and economic elites suppress parts of society for economic gain. In the case of Brazil this system is imperfect. The autonomy is certainly given but the corporations and the state are not embedded into civil society. There is no harmonious balance between them which leads to abuses by the state. Suffering under these abuses is the civil society and not the corporations.
The Brazilian policy is widely known to be quite brutal and intolerant. Police violence including excessive use of force, extra judicial executions, torture and other forms of ill treatment persists as one of Brazil’s most intractable human rights problem. These ill treatments are primarily aimed at the lower and middle classes. The corruption of the police together with the torture of prison inmates by the police is criticized and has a logical pattern.
If people have money then one can bribe the police and will not end up in prison being ill treated. If people do not have the money then they see the police as a state organ which does not care about their rights, but just favors the rich. It is clear that such behavior leads to the de-legitimization of the executive and the perception that the inability of the state to control the executive is due to incompetence or benefits certain parts of society.
The abuses mentioned are all symptoms of a developing country in which civil society is divided by the state on the basis of wealth. It shows that the concept of embedded autonomy has partly failed because there is no harmony between society and state. The economic growth further fosters inequality because more and more people are able to use the power of the executive through bribes.