Executive Branch
The President holds office for four years, with the right to re-election for an additional four-year term, and appoints his or her own cabinet.
Current Situation:
President Dilma Rouseff (Workers’s Party) holds the office since January 1, 2011. The Vice-President is Michel Temer (Democratic Movement Party).
The Cabinet of Brazil (Portuguese: Gabinete Ministerial do Brasil) is composed of the Ministers of State and senior advisors of the executive branch of the federal government of Brazil. Cabinet officers are appointed and dismissed by the President. There are currently twenty-four Ministries of State and fourteen other cabinet-level offices.
Ministers assist the President in the exercise of the executive power. Each minister is responsible for the general administration of a government portfolio, and heads a corresponding government ministry. Ministers prepare standards, monitor and evaluate federal programs, formulate and implement policies for the sectors they represent.
They are responsible also to establish strategies, policies and priorities in the application of public resources. The most important minister is the Chief of Staff, while other high profile ministers include Finance, Justice, External Relations and Defense.
The current cabinet features a record number of female ministers (9, making up 24% of the cabinet), signaling President Dilma Rousseff’s wish to stimulate the presence of women in key sectors of her government. The cabinet consists of the following members:
- Chief of Staff: Gleisi Hoffmann
- Ministry of Agrarian Development: Afonso Florence
- Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply: Wagner Rossi
- Ministry of Cities: Mário Negromonte
- Ministry of Communications: Paulo Bernardo
- Ministry of Culture: Ana de Hollanda
- Ministry of Defense: Nelson Jobim
- Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade: Fernando Pimentel
- Ministry of Education: Fernando Haddad
- Ministry of the Environment: Izabella Teixeira
- Ministry of Finance: Guido Mantega
- Ministry of Fishing and Aquaculture: Luiz Sérgio
- Ministry of External Relations: Antonio Patriota
- Ministry of Health: Alexandre Padilha
- Ministry of Justice: José Eduardo Cardozo
- Ministry of Labor and Employment: Carlos Lupi
- Ministry of Mines and Energy: Edson Lobão
- Ministry of National Integration: Fernando Bezerra Coelho
- Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management: Miriam Belchior
- Ministry of Science and Technology: Aloizio Mercadante
- Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Alleviation: Tereza Campelo
- Ministry of Social Security: Garibaldi Alves Filho
- Ministry of Sports: Orlando Silva
- Ministry of Tourism: Pedro Novais
- Ministry of Transportation: Paulo Sérgio Passos
Legislative Branch
The National Congress of Brazil (Portuguese: Congresso Nacional do Brasil) is the legislative body of Brazil’s federal government.
Unlike regional legislative bodies — Legislative Assemblies and City Councils — the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate (the upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house).
The Senate represents the 26 states and the Federal District. Each State and the Federal District has a representation of three Senators, who are elected by popular ballot for a term of eight years. Every four years, renewal of either one third or two-thirds of the Senate (and of the delegations of the States and the Federal District) takes place.
When one seat is up for election in each State, each voter casts one vote for the Senate; when two seats are up for election, each voter casts two votes, and the voter cannot give his two votes for the same candidate, but, in elections for the renewal of two-thirds of the Senate, each party can present two candidates for election.
The candidate in each State and the Federal District (or the first two candidates, when two thirds of the seats are up for election) who achieve the greatest plurality of votes are elected.
The Chamber of Deputies represents the people of each state, and its members are elected for a four year term by a proportional representation. Unlike the Senate, the whole of the Chamber of Deputies is renewed every four years.
The Congress meets annually in its Brasília seat from 2 February to 27 July and from 1 August to 22 December.
Until recently, it was common for politicians to switch parties, and the proportion of congressional seats held by each party would often change. However, a decision of the Supremo Tribunal Federal has ruled that the seats belong to the parties and not to the politicians, and that one can only change parties and retain his seat in a very limited set of cases, so that now politicians who abandon the party for which they were elected face the loss of their Congressional seat.
Each house of the Brazilian Congress elects its President and the other members of its directing board from among its members.
The President of the Senate (currently Senator José Sarney) is ex officio the President of the National Congress, and in that capacity summons and presides over joint sessions, as well as over the joint services of both Houses.
However, the President of the Chamber (currently Marco Maia) is the third in the presidential line of succession, while the President of the Senate (and of Congress) ranks as fourth in line to the presidency of the Republic.
Judiciary Branch
Brazilian courts function under civil law adversarial system. The Judicial branch is organized in states’ and federal systems with different jurisdictions.
The judges of the courts of first instance take office after public competitive examination. The second instance judges are promoted among the first instance judges.
The Justices of the superior courts are appointed by the president for life and approved by the Senate. All the judges and justices must be graduated in law. Brazilian judges must retire at the age of 70.
States’ judicial branch
The states are divided into judicial districts named comarcas, which are composed of one or more cities. Each comarca has at least one court of first instance. There are specialized courts of first instance for family litigation or bankruptcy in some cities and states. Judgments from these district courts can be the subject of judicial review following appeals to the courts of second instance.
Judgments of courts of first instance are usually made by only one judge. The Brazilian judiciary system uses jury trials only for judging crimes against life.
In all Brazilian states, there is one court of second instance, named the Justice Tribunal (Tribunal de Justiça in Portuguese). Some states, as São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul, used to have also Courts of Appeals (Tribunal de Alçada) too, but with different jurisdictions. The highest court of a state is the Justice Tribunal.
Second instance judgments are usually made by three judges, who, in the Justice Tribunals, are named desembargadores.
Federal judicial branch
The national territory is divided into five Regions, which are composed of two or more states. Each region is divided in Judiciary Sections (Seções Judiciárias in Portuguese), coterminous with the territory of each state, and subdivided in Judiciary Subsections (Subseções Judiciárias), each with a territory that may not correspond to the states’ comarcas.
The Judiciary Subsections have federal courts of first instance and each Region has a Federal Regional Tribunal (Tribunal Regional Federal) as a court of second instance.
There are special federal court systems for labor litigations, called Labor Justice (Justiça do Trabalho), for electoral matters, called Electoral Justice (Justiça Eleitoral), and for martial criminal cases, called Military Justice (Justiça Militar), each of them with its own courts.
Superior Courts
There are two national superior courts that grant writs of certiorari in civil and criminal cases: the Superior Justice Tribunal (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, STJ) and the federal supreme court, called the Supreme Federal Tribunal (Portuguese: Supremo Tribunal Federal).
The STJ grants a Special Appeal (Recurso Especial) when a judgement of a court of second instance offends a federal statute disposition or when two or more second instance courts make different rulings on the same federal statute. There are parallel courts for labor law, electoral law and military law.
The STF grants Extraordinary Appeals (Recurso Extraordinário) when judgements of second instance courts violate the constitution. The STF is the last instance for the writ of habeas corpus and for reviews of judgments from the STJ.
The superior courts do not analyze any factual questions in their judgments, but only the application of the law and the constitution. Facts and evidences are judged by the courts of second instance, except in specific cases such as writs of habeas corpus.