Police Reform in Post Authoritarian Brazil Thesis

Police Reform in Post-Authoritarian Brazil

A majority of new democracies entail an unbelievable illogicality of an immensely feeble citizenship coalesced with a stern description of the constitutional guarantees. In order to explicate this disparity it would be prudent to contemplate the significance of political institutions regarding representation of citizen, which were prevalent subsequent to the military establishments attributed as troublesome and a majority of the new restrictions. A few defined in the autocratic establishment, were implemented by quite a few new establishments prominently by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 (Pinheiro, 1996).

The prominence out of such institutions of Brazil were the excessive illustration of lesser populated regions on the contrary to the regions with greater population: Sao Paulo in recent times incorporates 60 Congressmen (which is analogous to 11.9% of the entire constituents of a Congress) depicting a voting strength of 20,774,991. This strength makes up 21.9% of the entire voting population (voting population incorporates above 94 million population) (Pinheiro, 1996).

On the contrary, in Roraima the voting strength incorporates 8 Congressmen (which is analogous to 1.6% of the entire constituents of a Congress) depicting a voting strength of 119,399 which is 0.1% of the entire voting population of the nation. The regions which are excessively illustrated entail the Northeast and Northern regions which entail horrendous social indicators along with the undeniable presence of the constituents associated to social autocracy due to the persistent existence of oligarchic politicians, who have tenaciously been in authority since 1964. These regions incorporate a hefty magnitude of illiteracy out of their respective population: 46% are present in the Northeastern region and 35% are present in the North region. The illiteracy rates of Northeastern and Northern regions are very immense in contrast to the illiteracy rates of other regions (Pinheiro, 1996) which are:

Maranhao, 21.68%

Sergipe, 23.30%

Paraiba, 21.64%

Alagoas, 23.22%

Rio de Janeiro, 3.09%

Sao Paulo, 3.07%

These regions are specifically those vicinities where liberated access to the resources of information and intelligibility is immensely restricted due to the fact that the local establishment has the authority on information mediums like radio and television through an acknowledgment of both the press and the national government. A practice of oligopoly is maintained in the television media as eight private clusters possess the authority on a nationwide scale. A majority of acknowledgments are conferred out of the individuals of the same family in order to deceive the stipulation of the law which prevents from having more than ten acknowledgements of the television medium. Majority of the authorities in the vicinities of Northeastern and Northern regions are established in consensus with the electronic media entities and the press: senators and ministers, previous presidents, numerous previous governors, from these regions possess acknowledgements of radio, in a few instances also of newspaper, and television (Pinheiro, 1996).

Such restrictions in the system of representation impose unswerving outcomes regarding citizen involvement due to the fact that such biased practices tend to generate sturdy problems which discourage human improvement in certain communities along with impeding the prospect of formulating the involvement of civil society. Pathology or fatality are not the basis of the under development of these two regions (Pinheiro, 1996).

It is rather the substantial outcome obtained by the management of the economic reserves (privatization of the state budgets by means of corruption) and the preservation of societal controls of political practice (judicial institutions, representation, police, media access) by the governing establishment. Social trepidations of illiteracy, penury, endemics are the outcomes of the continuous existence of a democratic regime. These influential figures and their activities are uncontested by the civil society submitted to illegitimate authorities and in majority of the instances to terror; non-accountability, exemption from lawful proceedings, and non-transparency are the basic foundation of the economical and conventional political supremacy (Pinheiro, 1996).

"Accountability" is the most vital constituent which is absent in these new democracies, its absence impose impasses on the effectual implementation of lawful regulations due to the fact that this constituent highlights that each and every governmental personnel, irrespective of their rank, should be held liable for their activities. As examined by Alfred Stepan, in contemporary political practice, accountability refers that every financial document should be scrutinized on regular basis and the governmental personnel who are utilizing public finances should pursue clear methodologies. Furthermore, accountability also includes that any governmental personnel who utilize national reserves as their own should be held liable for their activities and consequently should be imprisoned (Linz and Stepan 1994 as cited in Pinheiro, 1996).Influential economic and political clusters, by means of their authority on the electronic media, impose hindrance on transparency and generate impediments in order to debilitate those institutions which play an active part in the formulation and implementation of constitutional guarantees. This ultimately propels the establishment to be liable for their respective activities to the civil society. The judicial body is intentionally not uncovered to any form of exterior authority of administrative profits of expenditures, which are regularly forwarded to the authorities of State government. The State public prosecutors are also refrained in performing their legitimate activities. The police department in majority of the nations is comprehensively commanded by the establishment. Hence, the incapability of a particular State in making the governmental personnel liable and to fortify political institutions, and in majority of the instances coalesced with corruption is an observable fact which has the tendency of influencing merged and new democracies (Pinheiro, 1996).

The immensely flimsy merging of the democratic institutions, devoid of an effectual accountability methodology imposes an essential outcome which grants immunity from the lawful proceedings to the organized crimes and crimes committed by the establishment (Pinheiro, 1996).

Hence, we must comprehend that in majority of the instances a democracy exists which is devoid of the ideology of citizenship regardless of the existence of democratic authority and the unambiguous elucidation of constitutional guarantees. The nonexistence of an effectual mobilization confines significantly the influence which a proficient mobilization could have imposed in altering the basics of political power. A few of the influential individuals, chiefly belonging to underdeveloped regions, possess the viewpoint that if democratic involvement and citizenship emerges as an actuality then it will unavoidably guide to insistence for tedious overdue and economical alteration. In majority of the instances due to the flaws of the political institutions, the obstruction of involvement outside the elections instigated by local influential individuals and state security services propels the pervasiveness of clienteles. This, in turn leads to the influential individuals' opposition to the formulation of sturdy and self-governing union by the poorer sections of the community themselves (Cammack 1994 as cited in Pinheiro, 1996).

Problem Statement

The police department of Brazil is acknowledged to be a prominent one as far as brutality and corruption around the globe is concerned. Since the last twenty years, the police department has executed numerous ferocious operations, for instance murdering eight sleeping children on the pathway of Candelaria Church belonging to Rio de Janeiro in 1993, and a massacre in Carandiru which entailed 111 inmates of Sao Paulo in the year 1992. A majority of these instances of using deadly forces deliberately or extrajudicial killings, the personnel of police department who were engaged in these events were not penalized due to the fact that they presented a justification of "self-defense," whilst majority of the cases were not presented in front of the magistrates. The problems imposed by the police department are not just restricted to extrajudicial assassinations; they are also engaged with the criminal networks. Along with possessing such immoral and illicit conduct they are also inept in defending the well-being of the entire population dwelling in Brazil (Pinheiro, 1996).

An intense stipulation from the civil society for their protection has propelled the policymakers in recommending alterations in the police department. It has been noticed that after the conversion towards democracy, the restructuring of police department has been the highest priority for the Brazilian establishment. Encountering a disquieting intensity of crime and violence chiefly in metropolitan vicinities subsequent to the termination of the armed forces establishment, numerous restructuring stances have been proposed which are intended towards eradicating this problem not only at a federal level but also at State level. The query which arises from the preceding statement is: why the evolution in the restructuring of police department is slow paced in contrast to the democracy of Brazil for the past twenty five years? (Pinheiro, 1996)

Purpose of the study

Illustrating on quite minute but expanding studies and investigations regarding the politics of policing in Latin America, this particular study intends to explicate the basis due to which the restructuring of police department is slow paced in contrast to Brazil's democracy for the past twenty five years.

Significance of the study

This particular research will bear considerable worth for the police departments in Brazil, due to the fact that this particular study will encompass the concept of challenges, problems.....