Basic information about the territory
Subchapters:
- System of governance and political tendencies in the country
- Foreign policy of the country
- Population
The system of governance and political tendencies in the country
Official name of the country: República Federativa do Brasil, Federative Republic of Brazil (abbreviation BFR)
Brazil is a democratic federal republic with a presidential system. The head of state is the president, who also heads the government. The President is elected for a four-year term of office with the possibility of one re-election for the next, immediately following term of office. The president himself appoints the ministers of his government. Check diseaseslearning to learn more about Brazil political system.
The individual states of the federation are headed by a democratically elected governor.
The main legislative body is the bicameral National Congress, which consists of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has 513 members who are elected for four years. The Senate has 81 members elected for eight years.
On January 1, 2019, democratically elected President Jair Messias Bolsonaro (originally a member of the conservative Partido Social Liberal, currently a member of the Partido Liberal) took office. It was generally expected that President Bolsonaro’s government would try to economically modernize the country and, in particular, open up its market more, which until now has been one of the most closed in terms of taxes, tariffs and other restrictions complicating imports in the interest of anachronistic protection of domestic producers. In 2019, some steps in the indicated liberal direction took place, but the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic put all these reforms on the back burner. The year 2022 is marked by the October presidential elections, during which J. Bolsonaro will seek re-election.
Composition of the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil (as of 5/2/2022): Ministries – Minister (Party) Agriculture and Supply – Marcos Montes Cordeiro (PSD) For Civil Affairs – Ronaldo Vieira Bento (-) Science, Technology, Innovation – Paulo Alvim (-) Communications – Fábio Faria (PSD) Defense – Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira (–) Regional Development – Daniel de Oliveira Duarte Ferreira (–) Economy – Paulo Guedes (–) Education – Victor Godoy Veiga (–) Infrastructure – Marcelo Sampaio (–) Justice and Public Safety – Anderson Torres (–) Environment – Joaquim Alvaro Pereira Leite (–) Mining and Energy – Bento Albuquerque (–) Women’s Affairs,families and human rights – Cristiane Britto (–) Foreign relations – Carlos Alberto Franco França (–) Health – Marcelo Queiroga (–) Tourism – Carlos Alberto Gomes de Brito (–) Supreme Audit Office of the Union – Wagner Rosário (–) Labor and social of Affairs – José Carlos Oliveira (-) Offices (Secretarias) with the status of ministries (subordinate to the President): Office of the Government – Célio Faria Júnior (-) General Secretariat of the Government – Ciro Nogueira (PP) CPR director of the civil department – Luiz Eduardo Ramos (–) CPR Institutional Security – Augusto Heleno (PATRI) Other bodies with ministerial status (subordinate to the President): General Advocate of the Union – Bruno Bianco (–) President of the Central Bank – Roberto Campos Neto (–)
Foreign policy of the country
Brazil is a regional power, strongly influencing the countries of South and Latin America. Brazil has the position of the world’s 10th largest economy and practically the most insignificant exporter of commodities, which permanently keeps it in the place of an important global player.
To expand its influence, Brazil mainly uses the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the free trade zone Mercosur, the BRICS association (Russia, China, India, South Africa) and the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa), sometimes called Lusofonia. It is an association of nine states in which Portuguese is the official or one of the official languages. In addition to Brazil and Portugal, members include Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor and Equatorial Guinea. Check themotorcyclers for Brazil defense and foreign policy.
The previous left-wing governments of Presidents Lula and Rousseff placed a special emphasis on cooperation within the BRICS framework, especially with Russia, India and China. President Bolsonaro has become much closer to the United States and Colombia, with which he shares a critical stance on the Maduro regime in Venezuela. He further improved relations with Japan, South Korea, Israel and Taiwan. He took a strong anti-China stance and got into a row with Russia over Venezuela, cooling BRICS cooperation considerably. Brazil is involved militarily and diplomatically in two crisis areas in particular – East Timor and Haiti.
Brazil has long sought permanent membership in the UN Security Council and is also seeking membership in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
In June 2019, the EU and the MERCOSUR countries (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay) reached a political agreement on a future trade agreement. Brazil was the protagonist in reaching this agreement after 20 years of negotiations. Complex and time-consuming negotiations are now underway on the specific terms of the agreement.
President Bolsonaro’s anti-globalist rhetoric and alleged support for illegal deforestation in the Amazon have worsened Brazil’s reputation in some countries, especially EU countries, in recent years. The subject of criticism is primarily the environmental policy of the current Brazilian government, and some EU states are currently making the approval of a trade agreement between the EU and MERCOSUR conditional on concrete corrective actions by Brazil in this area.
Population
Number of inhabitants (2022): 21million Population density: 2 inhabitants / km2 The distribution of the population within the territory is very uneven. 84.6% of the population lives in urban agglomerations, which represent 0.63% of the area. Population by state (2017): São Paulo – 45.09 million; Minas Gerais – 21.12 million; Rio de Janeiro – 16.72 million; Bahia – 15.34 million; Rio Grande do Sul – 11.32 million; Paraná – 11.32 million; Pernambuco – 9.47 million; Ceará – 9.02 million; Pará – 8.37 million; Maranhão – 7.00 million; Santa Catarina – 7.00 million; Goiás – 6.78 million; Amazonas – 4.06 million; Paraíba – 4.03 million; Espírito Santo – 4.02 million; Rio Grande do Norte – 3.51 million; Alagoas – 3.38 million; Mato Grosso – 3.34 million; Piauí – 3.22 million; Distrito Federal – 3.04 million; Mato Grosso do Sul – 2.71 million; Sergipe – 2.29 million; Rondônia – 1.81 million; Tocantins – 1.55 million; Acre – 0.83 million; Amapá – 0.80 million; Roraima – 0.52 million Average annual population growth: 0.77% Demographic composition: female 51.6%, male 48.4% Proportion of population: 0-14 years: 23.8% 15-24 years: 1% 25-54 years: 43.7% 55-64 years: 8.4% Over 65 years: 7.6% National composition: Brazilians – 48.5% of European origin, 43% of mixed origin, 7% of African origin, 1 % Asian, 0.5% Native American. Religious groups: Christianity 31% (Catholics 50%, Protestants, Pentecostals and modern Pentecostals 31%), other religions 8.03% (traditional African 2%), no religion 10%. Official language: Portuguese Other most commonly used languages: Spanish English Spanish is understandable due to its affinity with Portuguese and communication with the surrounding Latin American countries. English is somewhat widespread in business circles and among the youth. Knowledge of foreign languages is generally very low. Administrative division: Brazil is made up of 26 states and 1 federal district with the capital Brasília. States: Acre (AC), Alagoas (AL), Amapá (AP), Amazonas (AM), Bahia (BA), Ceará (CE), Distrito Federal (DF). Espírito Santo (ES), Goiás (GO), Maranhão (MA), Mato Grosso (MT), Mato Grosso do Sul (MS), Minas Gerais (MG), Pará (PA), Paraíba (PB), Paraná (PR), Pernambuco (PE), Piauí (PI), Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Rio Grande do Norte (RN), Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Rondônia (RO), Roraima (RR), Santa Catarina (SC), São Paulo (SP), Sergipe (SE), Tocantins (TO).