Suddenly "people": perspectives about the political participation in the abolitionist campaign of 1884

Abstract

Divided into two parts this paper first analyzes the conceptions of political participation written by Joaquim Nabuco. Even while he recognizes the inability of the Brazilian people for the democratic exercise, he proposes that the structure of the representative system was defective and hindered the blossoming of a broader political culture. In the second part I make a analysis in how political participation was seen by commentators of the time, focusing on the case of the abolitionist campaign of 1884. This election was highlighted by a large membership of the Recife population, and was marked by an armed conflict in the polling place. According to reports, many of those involved were slaves and freedmen who had no political rights. These perspectives question the publicized political indifference of marginalized social sectors that had not right to vote.

Keywords

• Democracy;
• Race
• Political Culture