Eleições, cidadania e práticas eleitorais na província de Minas Gerais (1824-1831)

Abstract

The general objective of this research is to analyze the elections and electoral practices in Minas Gerais province, in the first years of the Empire of Brazil (1824-1831), trying to identify the main characteristics present in the first electoral instructions, the different types of elections carried out in the period and the actors involved in the different phases of the electoral process. Such questions aim to better understand how these elections were carried out, from the point of view of norms and practices and in a context marked by the formation of provincial powers in the process of building the Brazilian National State. From a wide and diversified set of documents – laws, decrees, electoral instructions, electoral minutes, periodicals and electoral correspondence sent by the municipal councils to the imperial authorities, especially to the figure of the president of the province and his Government Council –, we seek to demonstrate that the realization of these first electoral elections, at the most different levels (local, regional and national), meant a milestone in the new institutional arrangement with the presence of elective positions.