Brazilian Democratic Transition And Consolidation

Brazilian Democratic Transition And Consolidation Brazil, which is the largest country in South America and fifth largest country in the world, is also a political and economic leader in its continent. However, among the many nascent Latin American democracies, Brazil’s road to democracy was the most challenging (Linz and Stepan, 1996, p 166). Its democratization (1974-89) followed a cyclical pattern which alternated back and forth between quasi-democratic and authoritarian systems (Huntington, 1991, p 41). After a brief period of electoral democracy in the 1930s, military coups took control of the nation. The next three decades witnessed Brazil’s long authoritarian rule that was governed by a series of stable but harsh dictatorial regimes. In the 20th century, Brazil embarked on the path to electoral democracy, which was led by Vargas, the elected President. However, his rule plagued Brazil with several rebellions caused by military officers, the spread of communism across the country, and brutal tortures by governme nt agents. Thus, the short period of democracy ended and Vargas established a populist dictatorship. In 1945, military coup supported by the Brazilian oligarchy finally overthrew the ineffective and harsh leader. Brazil then plunged into a long authoritarian rule from 1964 to 1985, in which the military government held power and democratized Brazil through five major stages (Codato, 2006). It was this period of uncertainty and unrest caused by violent prolonged military dictatorship that created the climate for political compromise and democratic obligation. Causes for the breakdown of authoritarianism such as splits in the military led to the demand for re-democratization in Brazil. Democratization finally occurred in 1974 and coincided with the ‘Third Wave’ of democracy. One will be surprised and wonder how Brazil’s long period of authoritarianism under the reign of three capable leaders, Branco, Silva, and Medici’s leadership sparked a possible shift to a democracy. What factors pressured each successive military leader to concede to democratization? After a long military dictatorship, what caused the next administration, Geisel, to democratize Brazil? Finally, to what extent has democracy been consolidated? This paper will attempt to answer the above questions. I will first give a contextual knowledge about Brazil’s political transition which occurred in five stages, over the span of thirty years. Next, I will explain the reasons that caused the breakdown of authoritarianism in Brazil. Finally, I will evaluate the extent to which democracy in Brazil is consolidated based on its obstacles and threats, and suggest ways in which the democracy can be stabilized. History of Brazil’s Political Transition Establishing military dictatorship The first stage of Brazil’s political transition corresponds to the Castello Branco and Costa e Silva administrations (March, 1964 – December, 1968). The military ceased it s leadership in 1961 when vice president Joà £o Goulart resigned from presidency. He resigned with hopes of being reinstated again by popular demand, but was denied by the military’s fear of him being a communist. Following his resignation, the regime encountered difficulties in finding a new leader as no civilian politician was suitable for the existing revolutionary factions in governance. After fifteen days, Branco became the new president and managed to reform the political-economic system (Hudson, 1997). Being anti-Goulart and disapproving of his ruling methods, Branco rejected the extension of his presidency beyond Goulart’s term, or the institutionalization of the military’s power.

Culturally Competent Ethical Decision Making Essay

Culturally Competent Ethical Decision Making - Essay Example Her husband, Thomas was banking professional who was going through a period of serious financial crisis owing to the economic recession and resulting salary cuts. I came to know from Maya, her husband and his sister that she dearly wanted the baby to be born. As I could involve her into an intimate personal conversation, she told me that her parents were eagerly awaiting the birth of her second child as there was a belief in her family that the second child of every girl in the family would be a girl child and she would be the cause of prosperity for the family (because their community had a matrilineal family system). In Maya’s current pregnancy also, the medical tests had showed that she was carrying a girl child. The family legend was that if you do not let the second child to be born, the whole family would be cursed. Her gynecologist had advised that if she wanted, she could retain her pregnancy but the child would live only for a very short period of time and that too in misery. This was a situation that Thomas wanted to avoid at any cost and hence he was trying to convince her to undergo an abortion. And he also did not have any faith in her family legend. But Maya was not totally uninfluenced by the family traditions and her father adamantly believed in that. And Maya and her parents were against abortion in their beliefs. Thomas had called her parents in Sri Lanka over phone to tell them that she needed to terminate the pregnancy but after that her father had refused to attend her or her husband’s calls. He had also wrote her a letter telling that destroying the child would bring in a curse on the family and will affect even the generations to come. He also wrote that she should keep her trust and leave the rest to God. After listening to Maya and all who were concerned (including Thomas, his sister Emma, Maya’s friend Lisa and Maya’s mother over phone), I was faced with an ethical dilemma- whether to support Maya in her dec ision or to try to convince her to undergo an abortion. I had heard that tumors in children have a better chance of getting cured than in adults but I had no scientific data available on that. So I started collecting data from books, scientific publications and authentic websites. The conclusion that I arrived at was that many tumors in children have a chance of getting cured and also I came to know that â€Å"over half of the children diagnosed with brain tumors will live more than five years† (Rosenbaum, Dolinger and Rosenbaum, 2008, p.549). But still there can be no blanket assurance that the child would survive. But the more important aspect of the problem before me was that Maya and her family belonged to a culture rooted in religiosity and family bonding, while her husband and his family hailed from the Western culture, which is less religious and more individualistic (White, 2005, p.206-207). Hence the ethical dilemma before me was a product of the interaction between two different cultures and hence it demanded certain amount of cultural competence from me as a nursing practitioner. Andrews and Boyle (2008) have drawn attention to this aspect by observing that â€Å"[e]quity, fairness, and meaningfulness in caring are fully realized by cultural

Housing Crisis in the USA Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 6

Housing Crisis in the USA - Essay Example Alan Greenspan, as the leader of the Federal Bank definitely had a stake in this and in fact, he and his team seemed to have too much faith in the theory of an efficient market that is able to regulate itself (Shiller 89). Yet, these ideas of a perfect market where competition in the context of demand and supply is supposed to create market equilibrium are fundamentally flawed. In such cases where deregulation occurs, it is always likely that there will be a time when the market will collapse under its own pressure. The increasing income inequality is a major factor that led to the housing crisis. Increasing poverty in America meant that many households are not able to have the proper income to own a house and this led to the creation of a huge market niche that the banks could not ignore. These people who make the greater majority of the pupation in the United States had to achieve the American dream of owning a house, yet they did not have the means because they could not access the normal mortgages. When banks, through the freedom afforded them by deregulation, discovered this niche, they started giving subprime mortgages. The subprime mortgages were a high-risk venture and as would be expected, they ended up having a negative impact on the economy because many of these subprime customers ended up defaulting on their mortgage repayments. In this case of the housing crisis and the adverse situations that followed, everyone is to blame in a different kind of way. The banks were to blame for being careless and also for misleading people to believe that these products (subprime mortgages) were good for them. People seem to trust banks very much and always believe that anything these banks offer is without any hidden agenda. When banks offered the subprime mortgages, it was easy for these people to believe that it was safe to engage in the investments. The individuals are also to blame because their greed overshadowed their rationality.