Fernando Collor's impeachment and the new pattern of political instability in Latin America: a critical analysis

• Autor(a) principal: Fernandes, João Pedro Lopes
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ciências do Estado (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revice/article/view/e5128
• topic: Latin America; Rule of Law; Impeachment; Political crisis; América Latina; Estado democrático de Direito; Impeachment; Crise pol´ítica; América Latina; Impeachment; Estado democrático de Derecho; Crisis política

Many interpretations have been done in an attempt to answer a fundamental question in Brazil’s constitutional history: Which factors lead to the fall of the President Fernando Collor in 1992? In an access of romantism, many authors defend that the key-factor could be found in a psychological analisys of the President. This article, however, defends the hypothesis that the Collor’s case is part of a broader context of political instability in Latin-America, as stated by Aníbal Pérez-Liñán and if you want to understand all the factors which lead to the events that resulted in Collor’s resignation, you should first understand this phenomenon. Going further, this work also defends that Collor’s fall is less related to legal regulation of the impeachment than most people think. In fact, we are facing here a problem of democratic legitimacy. Therefore, the article will do an initial analysis about the relation between presidentialism and the impeachment, for then proceed analyzing the new pattern of political instability in Latin America. Finally, an effort will be made in interpreting Collor’s government crisis by using the referred interpretive key.