National Democratic Union
Encyclopedia
The National Democratic Union was a political party that existed in Brazil
between 1945 and 1965. It was ideologically aligned with the right-wing and conservatism
, being considered the precursor of the current Democrats
. Its symbol was an Olympic torch
and its motto was "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance", a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson
.
' Estado Novo
regime in 1945, political parties were allowed to reorganize themselves and to run in the general elections of that year. UDN grouped the main leaders which opposed the authoritarian regime of late President. This constant opposition to Vargas was the party's main characteristic. Therefore, its main opponents were the Social Democratic Party
(PSD) and the Brazilian Labour Party
(PTB), formed to give support to Vargas among the elite and the working class, respectively.
UDN was defeated in the presidential elections of 1945, 1950 and 1955, but remained the second largest party in the National Congress
, second only to PSD, from 1945 until 1962, when it was surpassed by PTB. The main political figure of UDN was Carlos Lacerda
, a staunch enemy of Vargas, whose second presidency (1951-1954) was bitterly opposed by UDN. An assassination attempt against Lacerda led to Vargas' suicide. On 1960, UDN preferred not to launch a presidential candidate, supporting the victorious Jânio Quadros
instead. Although Quadros was not a UDN member himself, most of the ministers in the Quadros Cabinet were members of UDN. The party was soon dissatisfied with Quadros, who resigned in a clumsy political maneuver. Without UDN's support, Quadros lost the majority of seats in the Congress, and soon found out it was impossible to govern without the backing of the Parliament. On August 21, 1961, just eight months after his inauguration, he resigned, hoping to return to power via popular acclaim.
Vice President João Goulart
from PTB (at that time, Brazilians would vote for President and Vice President separately) then took office. As soon as 1962, UDN began to conspire with military officers to topple him. A political protégé of Vargas, Goulart launched a Basic Reforms plan, predicting education reform, land reform
, urban reform, electoral reform and tax reform. That was labelled by UDN as a Soviet
influence on Brazilian politics. The plan also made PSD withdraw its support to the Goulart government in the National Congress, leaving him in a complicated situation. On April 1964, Goulart was depposed by a US-backed military coup d'état, which had the support of most UDN members. Lacerda, then governor of the Guanabara State
hoped to win the scheduled presidential election of 1965. However, the military regime cancelled this election and suppressed all the political parties, including UDN, whose members joined the National Renewal Alliance Party
(Aliança Renovadora Nacional - Arena), a new party created to endorse the military regime.
) party. However, the party was not conservative as a whole. Liberal and authoritarian, conservative and progressive theses coexisted in UDN. For instance, it voted in favor of the state monopoly on oil
and against the impeachment of Communist members of the Congress. On the other hand, it denounced the "Communist infiltration" in public administration, and strongly opposed government intervention in the economy. As a matter of fact, members of the Democratic Left faction, which defected UDN to form the Brazilian Socialist Party
(PSB), characterized the party as a free market
advocate, citing this as one of the reasons for the defection. Contesting the results whenever losing an election was also a common practice inside UDN.
The party was marked by binding itself with the Brazilian Army
and the aspirations of urban middle classes, all of which became unofficially known as "udenismo". An expression of the attitudes of its leaders towards politics, "udenismo" was characterized by defending classical liberalism
, clinging to higher education
and morality
, and repulsing populism
(as well as characterizing it as bad).
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
between 1945 and 1965. It was ideologically aligned with the right-wing and conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, being considered the precursor of the current Democrats
Democrats (Brazil)
The Democrats is a centre-right political party in Brazil, considered the main in the right-wing spectrum. Despite its former name , the party affiliates itself to the Centrist Democrat International, and the International Democrat Union. The name comes from its support to free market policies...
. Its symbol was an Olympic torch
Olympic Flame
The Olympic Flame or Olympic Torch is a symbol of the Olympic Games. Commemorating the theft of fire from the Greek god Zeus by Prometheus, its origins lie in ancient Greece, where a fire was kept burning throughout the celebration of the ancient Olympics. The fire was reintroduced at the 1928...
and its motto was "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance", a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
.
History
At the end of Getúlio VargasGetúlio Vargas
Getúlio Dornelles Vargas served as President of Brazil, first as dictator, from 1930 to 1945, and in a democratically elected term from 1951 until his suicide in 1954. Vargas led Brazil for 18 years, the most for any President, and second in Brazilian history to Emperor Pedro II...
' Estado Novo
Estado Novo (Brazil)
Vargas Era is the period in the history of Brazil that lasted from 1930 to 1945, when the country was under the leadership of Getúlio Dornelles Vargas....
regime in 1945, political parties were allowed to reorganize themselves and to run in the general elections of that year. UDN grouped the main leaders which opposed the authoritarian regime of late President. This constant opposition to Vargas was the party's main characteristic. Therefore, its main opponents were the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (Brazil)
The Social Democratic Party was a liberal political party in Brazil between 1945 and 1965. Founded as a center-right party by Getúlio Vargas together with the left-leaning Brazilian Labour Party, it elected Presidents Eurico Gaspar Dutra in 1945 and Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira in 1955...
(PSD) and the Brazilian Labour Party
Brazilian Labour Party (historical)
The Brazilian Labour Party was a center-left populist political party in Brazil founded in 1945 by supporters of the late Getúlio Vargas. It was dismantled by the military after 1964 coup d'état.-History:...
(PTB), formed to give support to Vargas among the elite and the working class, respectively.
UDN was defeated in the presidential elections of 1945, 1950 and 1955, but remained the second largest party in the National Congress
National Congress of Brazil
The National Congress of Brazil 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 and the Chamber of Deputies .The Senate represents the 26 states and...
, second only to PSD, from 1945 until 1962, when it was surpassed by PTB. The main political figure of UDN was Carlos Lacerda
Carlos Lacerda
Carlos Frederico Werneck de Lacerda was a Brazilian journalist and politician.Born in Rio de Janeiro, Lacerda was the son of a family of politicians from Vassouras, Rio de Janeiro State....
, a staunch enemy of Vargas, whose second presidency (1951-1954) was bitterly opposed by UDN. An assassination attempt against Lacerda led to Vargas' suicide. On 1960, UDN preferred not to launch a presidential candidate, supporting the victorious Jânio Quadros
Jânio Quadros
Jânio da Silva Quadros , , was a Brazilian politician who served as President of Brazil for only 7 months in 1961.-Career:...
instead. Although Quadros was not a UDN member himself, most of the ministers in the Quadros Cabinet were members of UDN. The party was soon dissatisfied with Quadros, who resigned in a clumsy political maneuver. Without UDN's support, Quadros lost the majority of seats in the Congress, and soon found out it was impossible to govern without the backing of the Parliament. On August 21, 1961, just eight months after his inauguration, he resigned, hoping to return to power via popular acclaim.
Vice President João Goulart
João Goulart
João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered to have been the last left-wing President of the country until Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.-Name:João Goulart is...
from PTB (at that time, Brazilians would vote for President and Vice President separately) then took office. As soon as 1962, UDN began to conspire with military officers to topple him. A political protégé of Vargas, Goulart launched a Basic Reforms plan, predicting education reform, land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
, urban reform, electoral reform and tax reform. That was labelled by UDN as a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
influence on Brazilian politics. The plan also made PSD withdraw its support to the Goulart government in the National Congress, leaving him in a complicated situation. On April 1964, Goulart was depposed by a US-backed military coup d'état, which had the support of most UDN members. Lacerda, then governor of the Guanabara State
Guanabara State
The State of Guanabara was a former Brazilian state that existed from 1960 to 1975. It comprised the city of Rio de Janeiro, after the national capital was moved to Brasília in 1960...
hoped to win the scheduled presidential election of 1965. However, the military regime cancelled this election and suppressed all the political parties, including UDN, whose members joined the National Renewal Alliance Party
National Renewal Alliance Party
The National Renewal Alliance Party or Aliança Renovadora Nacional was a conservative political party that existed in Brazil between 1966 and 1985...
(Aliança Renovadora Nacional - Arena), a new party created to endorse the military regime.
Ideology
Opponents of UDN characterized it as a golpista (pro-coups d'étatCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
) party. However, the party was not conservative as a whole. Liberal and authoritarian, conservative and progressive theses coexisted in UDN. For instance, it voted in favor of the state monopoly on oil
Petrobras
Petróleo Brasileiro or Petrobras is a semi-public Brazilian multinational energy corporation headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, and the largest company headquartered in the Southern Hemisphere by market...
and against the impeachment of Communist members of the Congress. On the other hand, it denounced the "Communist infiltration" in public administration, and strongly opposed government intervention in the economy. As a matter of fact, members of the Democratic Left faction, which defected UDN to form the Brazilian Socialist Party
Brazilian Socialist Party
The Brazilian Socialist Party , is a political party in Brazil. It was founded in 1947, before being abolished by the military regime in 1965 and re-organized in 1985 with the re-democratization of Brazil. It elected six Governors in 2010, becoming the second largest party in number of state...
(PSB), characterized the party as a free market
Free market
A free market is a competitive market where prices are determined by supply and demand. However, the term is also commonly used for markets in which economic intervention and regulation by the state is limited to tax collection, and enforcement of private ownership and contracts...
advocate, citing this as one of the reasons for the defection. Contesting the results whenever losing an election was also a common practice inside UDN.
The party was marked by binding itself with the Brazilian Army
Brazilian Army
The Brazilian Army is the land arm of the Brazilian Military. The Brazilian Army has fought in several international conflicts, mostly in South America and during the 19th century, such as the Brazilian War of Independence , Argentina-Brazil War , War of the Farrapos , Platine War , Uruguayan War ...
and the aspirations of urban middle classes, all of which became unofficially known as "udenismo". An expression of the attitudes of its leaders towards politics, "udenismo" was characterized by defending classical liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
, clinging to higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
and morality
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, and repulsing populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
(as well as characterizing it as bad).
Electoral performance
| Chamber Chamber of Deputies of Brazil The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. As of 2006, the chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms... |
Senate | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Votes | % of votes | Seats | % of seats | Seats | |||||||
| 1945 | 1,575,375 | 26.6 | 81 | 28.3 | 12 | |||||||
| 1947 | 677.374 | 32.4 | 5 | 26.3 | 8 | |||||||
| 1950 | 1,812,849 | 24.7 | 81 | 26.6 | 3 | |||||||
| 1954 | 1,936,935 | 21.9 | 74 | 22.7 | 18 | |||||||
| 1958 | 2,319,713 | 21.1 | 70 | 21.5 | 11 | |||||||
| 1962 | 2,547,207 | 22.6 | 97 | 23.7 | 14 | |||||||
| 1 Percentage of seats up for election that year. 2 Includes all seats from UDN's coalitions. Source: Rio de Janeiro State University |
||||||||||||
Presidents
- 1945-1947: Otávio Mangabeira
- 1947-1949: José Américo de AlmeidaJosé Américo de AlmeidaJosé Américo de Almeida was a Brazilian writer, a politician, a lawyer and a teacher.- Bibliography :* Reflexões de um Cabra, 1922* A Paraíba e seus Problemas, 1923* A Bagaceira, 1928...
- 1949-1951: Prado Kelly
- 1951-1953: Odilon BragaOdilon BragaOdilon Duarte Braga was a Brazilian lawyer and politician.Braga served as Minister of Agriculture under Getúlio Vargas between July 24, 1935 and November 10, 1937....
- 1953-1955: Arthur Ferreira dos Santos
- 1955-1957: Milton Campos
- 1957-1959: Juracy Magalhães
- 1959-1961: José de Magalhães Pinto
- 1961-1963: Herbert Levy
- 1963-1965: Olavo Bilac Pinto
- 1965: Ernani Sátiro
Secretaries-General
- 1945-1947: Virgílio de Melo Franco
- 1947-1949: Aliomar Baleeiro
- 1949-1951: José Monteiro de Castro
- 1951-1953: Rui Santos
- 1953-1955: Virgílio Távora
- 1955-1957: João Agripino Filho
- 1957-1959: Guilherme Machado
- 1959-1961: Aluísio Alves
- 1961-1963: Ernani Sátiro
- 1963-1965: Rui Santos
- 1965: Oscar Dias Correia