Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
| Chamber of Deputies Câmara dos Deputados |
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|---|---|
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| Type | |
| Type | Lower House |
| Leadership | |
| President of the Chamber of Deputies | Henrique Eduardo Alves, PMDB Since February 4, 2013 |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 513 |
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| Political groups |
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| Elections | |
| Voting system | Open list proportional representation |
| Last election | October 3, 2010 |
| Meeting place | |
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| National Congress Building Brasília Federal District Brazil |
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| Website | |
| www.camara.gov.br | |
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| This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Brazil |
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The Chamber of Deputies (Portuguese: Câmara dos Deputados) is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms. The current president of the Chamber is deputy Henrique Eduardo Alves (PMDB-RN).
Contents |
Legislatures []
The Legislatures are counted from the first meeting of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate, on 6 May 1826, in the imperial era (the Chamber of Deputies met for preparatory sessions from 29 April 1826 onwards to elect its officers and conduct other preliminary business, but the Legislature was formally opened on 6 May). The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate were created by Brazil's first Constitution, the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil, adopted in 1824. The previous Constituent and Legislative Assembly of the Empire of Brazil, a unicameral National Assembly, that was convened in 1823 and that was dissolved by Emperor Pedro I before adopting a Constitution is not counted among the Legislatures. Thus, the numbering includes only the bicameral Legislatures that existed from 1826 to the present day, and includes only Legislatures elected after the adoption of the first Brazilian Constitution.
In the imperial era, the national Legislature was named General Assembly. It was made up of the Chamber of Deputies and of a Senate.Senators were elected for life and the Senate was a permanent institution, whereas the Chamber of Deputies, unless dissolved earlier, was elected every three years. When Brazil became a Republic and a Federal State, the model of a bicameral Legislature was retained in the Federal level, but the Parliament was renamed as National Congress. The National Congress is made up of the Chamber of Deputies and of a Federal Senate, and both Houses have fixed terms and cannot be dissolved earlier. Under Brazil's present Constitution, adopted in 1988, Senators are elected to eight-year terms, and Deputies are elected every four years.
Each Brazilian State and the Federal District are represented in the Senate by an equal number of three Senators each. However, the number of deputies elected to represent the people of each State and of the Federal District in the Chamber of Deputies is proportional to the size of the population of the respective State, or of the Federal District. However, no delegation from a State or from the Federal District in the Chamber of Deputies can be made up of less than eight or more than seventy seats. Thus, the least populous State elects eight Federal Deputies and the more populous state elects seventy Federal Deputies. Those minimum and maximum numbers of seats in a delegation favour the smaller States at the expense of the more populous States, and as a result of those restrictions the size of the delegations is not exactly proportional to the population of the several States: if it weren't for the maximum limit of seventy Deputies per State, the more populous States would have to elect way more than seventy Deputies, to compensate for the fact that the least populous state elects eight Deputies.
While the Senate is not renewed all at once (there are two classes of Senators, and every four years either a third or two thirds of the Senate seats are up for election), in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, every four years, all seats are up for election at once.
The numbering of the Legislatures is continuous, including the Legislatures of the imperial General Assembly and of the republican National Congress. The inauguration of a new composition of Chamber of Deputies for a four-year term of office marks the start of a new Legislature.
- 1st Legislature (1826–1829)
- 2nd Legislature (1830–1833)
- 3rd Legislature (1834–1837)
- 4th Legislature (1838–1841)
- 5th Legislature (1842–1844)
- 6th Legislature (1845–1847)
- 7th Legislature (1848)
- 8th Legislature (1849–1852)
- 9th Legislature (1853–1856)
- 10th Legislature (1857–1860)
- 11st Legislature (1861–1863)
- 12nd Legislature (1864–1866)
- 13rd Legislature (1867–1868)
- 14th Legislature (1869–1872)
- 15th Legislature (1872–1875)
- 16th Legislature (1876–1877)
- 17th Legislature (1878–1881)
- 18th Legislature (1882–1884)
- 19th Legislature (1885)
- 20th Legislature (1886–1889), dissolved by the 15 November 1889 military coup that proclaimed Brazil a Republic
- 21st Legislature: had already been elected to succeed the 20th legislature, but was not installed due to the proclamation of the Republic. New elections were summoned by the provisional government of the Republic in 1890.
Old Republic[2]
- 21st Legislature (1890–1891), discharged the role of Constituent Congress (1890–1891). The act that summoned the elections for the Constituent Congress and that empowered it to draft a Constitution already established that the Congress would be made up of two Houses, an elected Senate with equal representation for the Brazilian States, and a Chamber of Deputies, each State having a number of Deputies proportional to the size of its population. During the drafting of the Constitution, the Congress was to meet in joint session. The Congress was required to adopt a Constitution that conformed to the republican form of government, and that preserved the recently declared Federal model of the State.
- 22nd Legislature (1891–1893)
- 23rd Legislature (1894–1896)
- 24th Legislature (1897–1899)
- 25th Legislature (1900–1902)
- 26th Legislature (1903–1905)
- 27th Legislature (1906–1908)
- 28th Legislature (1909–1911)
- 29th Legislature (1912–1914)
- 30th Legislature (1915–1917)
- 31st Legislature (1918–1920)
- 32nd Legislature (1921–1923)
- 33rd Legislature (1924–1926)
- 34th Legislature (1927–1929)
- 35th Legislature (1930): dissolved by the provisional government after the 1930 Revolution.
Vargas Era[3]
- 36th Legislature (1933–1935), discharged the role of Constituent Assembly (1933–1934)
- 37th Legislature (1935–1937), dissolved by the Estado Novo coup d'état.
Legislatures elected under the Republic of 46[4]
- 38th Legislature (1946–1950), discharged the role of National Constituent Assembly (1946).
- 39th Legislature (1951–1954)
- 40th Legislature (1955–1958)
- 41st Legislature (1959–1962)
- 42nd Legislature (1963–1967), already under the Military Regime instituted by the 1964 military coup, the legislature discharged the role of Constituent Congress (1966–1967), under a decree of the military government (AI-4, Fourth Institutional Act), that commissioned the drafting of a new Constitution. The Constitution was voted under duress.
Legislatures elected under the Military Regime
- 43rd Legislature (1967–1970)
- 44th Legislature (1971–1975)
- 45th Legislature (1975–1979)
- 46th Legislature (1979–1983)
- 47th Legislature (1983–1987). The Chamber of Deputies was elected under the process of gradual return to democracy. During that legislature, the last military President handed over power to the first civilian Administration, still elected indirectly, by means of an Electoral College. The 1985 Electoral College, however, was placed under no duress, and elected the Opposition candidates for President and Vice-President. After the inauguration of the civilian Administration, the 47th Legislature passed a Constitutional Amendment, empowering the next Legislature, that would convene in February 1987 after the 1986 legislative elections, to discharge the role of National Constituent Assembly, empowered to adopt a new Constitution to replace the one inheirited from the Military Regime.
Legislatures elected after the restoration of civilian government ("New Republic")
- 48th Legislature (1987–1991), discharged the role of National Constituent Assembly (1987–1988).
- 49th Legislature (1991–1995)
- 50th Legislature (1995–1999)
- 51st Legislature (1999–2003)
- 52nd Legislature (2003–2007)
- 53rd Legislature (2007–2011)
- 54th Legislature (2011–2015)
See also []
- Federal institutions of Brazil
- 54th Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
- 53rd Chamber of Deputies of Brazil
- National Congress of Brazil
- Federal Senate of Brazil
References []
- ^ Chamber of Deputies Home Page: O Império do Brasil
- ^ Chamber of Deputies Home Page: First Republic
- ^ Chamber of Deputies Home Page: The Second Republic
- ^ Chamber of Deputies Home Page: The Fourth Republic