Liberalismo, elite política e exclusão de eleitorado na reforma eleitoral para introdução do voto direto no Brasil (1878-1881)

Abstract

This thesis analyzes how the Brazilian political elite – located in the House of Representatives and Federal Senate - thought about and discussed the maintenance of the monetary census as a mandatory requirement for an individual to be considered an elector during the electoral reform that introduced direct vote in Brazil. This electoral reform took place in the Brazilian parliament during December 1878 and January 1881 and was submitted by two different liberal offices. The first, Sinimbu Office, proposed an electoral reform through a constitutional reform by doubling the census requirement for a citizen to be considered an elector from 200$ to 400$. After the approval of House of Representatives, the office had its proposal rejected by senators. The second, Saraiva Office, proposed an electoral reform through an ordinary law, maintaining the constitutional census in 200$, and obtained approval in both legislative houses. From the Saraiva Project derived the Decree 3.029 from January 9th 1881, which became known as Saraiva Law. Besides suppressing one of the grades in the elections, this law also created a more rigid method for proving one’s income as demanded by the census. To develop this research, it was necessary to know and comprehend this political elite and verify what type of liberalism it represented, as well as identify and analyze the arguments used by these politicians to defend the maintenance of the monetary census in the elections. The sources used in the execution of this study were the House of Representative and the Senate’s annals.