Name: KÁTIA SAUSEN DA MOTTA
Publication date: 20/04/2018
Advisor:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ADRIANA PEREIRA CAMPOS | Advisor * |
Examining board:
| Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ADRIANA PEREIRA CAMPOS | Advisor * |
| GILVAN VENTURA DA SILVA | Internal Examiner * |
| SEBASTIÃO PIMENTEL FRANCO | Internal Examiner * |
Summary: This thesis discusses the political elite's of Brazil understanding of the participation of voting citizens at primary elections, and how it has come to pass the suffragist experience in the province of Espírito Santo, in the period of 1822 to 1881. From analyses of coeval political literature and parliamentary debates, it has been realized that a questioning about the extension of vote was part of the intellectual life of the rulers of the Empire along all of the 19th century. In 1822, while the country was still associated with Portugal, the creation of a Legislative Power established in Rio de Janeiro put forward an intense political discussion about the procedures which would come to regulate the election of future representatives. After the process of independence, the 1824 Constitution adopted a liberal impetus in formatting the voting right to favor the inclusion of a substantial portion of free men, including freedmen, into the arena of political citizenship. From the investigation of rites and practices on first-degree rallies which occurred in the province of Espírito Santo, the objective of this thesis has been the analysis of how the insertion of new citizens into politics took place. The focus of investigation, restricted to capixaba parishes, allowed one to follow the electoral behavior of ordinary men in the suffragist process. Electoral sources and newspapers revealed that strong political mobilization and active participation of voters marked the elections. The rites and political practices occurred under strong influence of religion, of daily life and of local interests, delineating the political culture guiding the citizens choice in the ballot. At a national level, however, a change in the imperial political elite's perception of the voters was accelerated. From the party reorganization in the years of 1860, and from the intensification of the political debate in those years, there emerged a new apprehension of the right of voting which lead to a questioning of the electoral participation of illiterates. This proposal was fulfilled with in the Saraiva Law of 1881, when it was decided for the exclusion of voting rights of illiterate citizens.
