The conciliatory pact as a political tradition: the positive memory of the transition in the New Republic (1985-2016)
Name: ARIEL CHERXES BATISTA
Publication date: 20/08/2026
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| CAMILA BUENO GREJO | Examinador Interno |
| CAROLINA FERREIRA DE FIGUEIREDO | Examinador Interno |
| PEDRO ERNESTO FAGUNDES | Presidente |
| RODRIGO PATTO SÁ MOTTA | Examinador Externo |
| TATYANA DE AMARAL MAIA | Examinador Externo |
Summary: Between the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship and promulgation of the New Republic, we must consider three moments as important in the transition from authoritarianism to democracy: the creation of the Amnesty Law (1979); the indirect election of Tancredo Neves at the Electoral College (1985); and the the promulgation of the 1988’s Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil. This new Brazil was formed by the New Republic opting to ignore the real necessity of judging the crimes from the military dictatorship, seeing that the formation of a new country was elected as priority. Therefore, Brazil’s democratic transition was limited due to the conciliatory pact existing between the military and civilians, evident during the entire redemocratization process. With this in mind, it is possible to observe the existence of a “Conciliation" Narrative, which can be identified on Brazil’s present time when specific events that happened during the redemocratization period – such as the signed pacts between the barracks and compromise solution – are taken into consideration, to the detriment of the implementation of the country’s Transitional Justice. Furthermore, it maintained military prerogatives and a type of Nostalgia for the people who orchestrated the transition. Having that in mind, this analysis aims to approach the presence of political conciliation as a predominant phenomenon in the construction of Brazil’s democracy and memory policies connected to the country’s dictatorial past. These actions are marked by a search for national reconciliation grounded on the non-revanchism as goal, especially on what pertains to the performance of the heads of the Executive who have been in Office during the New Republic. Finally, the source materials used consist mostly of speeches given by the Presidents of the Republic between 1980 and 2010, news broadcasted by Brazilian and international press periodicals in the same period of time, and legislations, a work developed using the content analysis perspective (Orlandi, 2009). Regarding the theoretical aspects, the History of Present Time approach is being used as well as the concepts of political culture, conciliation, memory, politics of memoria and Transitional Justice.
