Currently, the president is Dilma Rouseff who is the first woman to hold office in Brazil and the 36th chief of state and head of government. Her term, accompanied by Vice President Michel Temer, will last four years before another election takes place.
The greater structure of the Brazilian government is similar to that of the United States. The executive branch includes the president, the vice president, and the cabinet. The bicameral legislative branch is called the National Congress and includes a Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies. Finally, the judicial branch which is called the Supreme Federal Tribunal, consists of 11 ministers who are appointed for life by the president.
However, Brazil's government is very different from that of the United States in that it is carried out by a multi-party system, contrasting the two party system that defines American politics today. Parties cover ideologies from all across the board and range from the Communist Party of Brazil to the Humanist Party of Solidarity.
President Dilma Rouseff belongs to the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores [PT]) which is a center-left political party. When elected in late 2010, she pledged to fight poverty in Brazil and to maintain the triumphing Brazilian economy. Cast as the "mother figure" of Brazil, Rouseff is quoted saying "We cannot rest while there are Brazilians who are hungry, while there are families living on the street, while poor children are abandoned to their fate" (Daily News).
This bodes well for members of the African Diaspora as the majority of Brazilians identify with having African roots of some sort or another. Particularly though, the 4.9% of citizens that claim to be black will most likely see better times ahead as they tend to be on the lower end of the Brazilian socio-economic dynamic due to a subtle but negative employment bias.
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I found it ironic that Brazil has a similar governmental structure compared to the United States but theirs is much more recently established. It raised the question for me of, whether they have a different social climate there that gave way to the first female president? Does the U.S. have unfair misogynistic standards that are not present in Brazil? Also, the mandatory voting policy interested me because in this country, there has been conscious efforts to convince people to vote. It made me wonder if that policy actually works for Brazil, if it causes any backlash from the citizens, and the consequences for those who choose not to vote. All in all, this has altered my views of Brazil as a nation and I'm interested in finding out more.
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