FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF BRAZIL

• Official name: Republica Federativa do Brasil (Federal Republic of Brazil)
• Location: South America
• International organisations: Organisation of American States, United Nations, World Trade Organisation
• Borders: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, Venezuela
• Coastline: Atlantic Ocean
• Land area: 8,511,965 Km2
• Population: 192,100,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$10,800 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 79
• Ethnicity: European (mainly Portuguese, but also Italian, Germany, Spanish and others) 50%, African origin 7%, mixed race 42%. There is a large Japanese community in Sao Paolo. Native American peoples live in the remote interior.
• Languages: Brazilian Portuguese is the official language and almost universally understood. German and Italian are spoken in immigrant communities. Indigenous languages survive in the interior.
• Religion: About 75% of the population are at least nominally Catholic Christians. Protestant denominations, particularly Pentecostalism, are growing rapidly. There are small Jewish and Moslem communities. Some indigenous peoples follow traditional beliefs.
• Form of government: Federal presidential democratic republic. Brazil is divided into 26 states and one federal district. The states retain considerable legislative autonomy.
Capital: Brasilia
• Constitution: The Constitution of Brazil came into effect on 5 October 1988.
• Head of state: The President, elected by direct universal suffrage for a four-year term. The President can be removed from office by a process of impeachment.

• Head of government: The President, who appoints the members of the Cabinet.
• Legislature: The National Congress (Congresso Nacional) is a bicameral legislature. The lower house is the Chamber of Deputies, which has 513 members elected by proportional representation from the states for four-year terms. The upper house is the Federal Senate, which has 81 members (three from each state and the federal district) elected for eight-year terms.
• Electoral authority: The Superior Electoral Tribunal controls national elections.
• Freedom House 2011 rating: Political Rights 3, Civil Liberties 3
• Transparency International Corruption Index: 37% (69 of 178 countries rated)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom 2010 Index: 83.4% (58 of 178 countries rated)
• Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom 2010 Index: 56.3% (113 of 179 countries rated)

Political history

Brazil was a Portuguese colony from 1533 until it declared its independence in 1822. After 67 years as a monarchy it became a republic in 1889. Although constitutional government and a facade of democracy were established, Brazil was ruled by a small oligarchy of landowners. From 1930 to 1945 Getulio Vargas presided over a semi-fascist regime. After 1946 a more genuine democracy was established, but in 1965 President Joao Goulart was overthrown in a coup. From 1965 to 1985 Brazil was ruled by a military regime.

Brazil was unlucky in its return to democracy. Its first elected President after 1985, Tancredo Neves, died before taking office. Its second, Fernando Collor de Melo, was impeached for corruption. Not until Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected in 1994 did Brazil get a strong and successful President. Cardoso applied free-market policies and ended Brazil's chronic inflation.

But Brazil remains a country of huge social inequality, between classes, regions and races. Although Cardoso was re-elected in 1998, by 2002 the electorate was ready for a turn to the left. The veteran socialist candidate Luiz "Lula" Da Silva easily won the 2002 Presidential election, becoming Brazil's first working-class President. He was re-elected in 2006, and presided over a period of rapid economic growth and increasing prosperity. He finished his second term still one of the most popular politicians in the country's history, and his popularity was sufficient for his hand-picked successor, Dilma Rousseff, to have an easy victory in the 2010 presidential election. The left-wing parties also retained majorities in both houses of Congress.

Brazil has a vigorous multi-party system. The most important political parties are President Rousseff's Workers' Party (PT) (which is more populist than socialist), the centrist Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), and former President Cardoso's Brazilian Social-Democratic Party (PSDB), which despite its name is a party of free-market liberals. Other parties on the left are the Brazilian Labour Party , the Brazilian Socialist Party, the Democratic Labour Party, the Socialist People's Party and the Communist Party of Brazil. On the right are the mainstream conservative Democrats and Party of the Republic, and the far-right Brazilian Progressive Party.

Freedom House's 2011 report on Brazil says: "Brazil is an electoral democracy. The 2010 national elections were free and fair... Corruption is an endemic problem in Brazil... The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and both libel and slander were decriminalized in 2009... The country's largely independent judiciary is overburdened, plagued by corruption, and virtually powerless in the face of organized crime. The judiciary is often subject to intimidation and other external influences, especially in rural areas, and public complaints over its inefficiency are frequent... Brazil's police are among the world's most violent and corrupt, and public security remains a serious problem."

Updated October 2011