THE INFLUENCE OF BENJAMIN CONSTANT’S NEUTRAL POWER THEORY ON THE MODERATING POWER OF THE BRAZILIAN CONSTITUICION OF 1924

Abstract

The Industrial Revolution in England and the theory of Popular Sovereignty, especially with the French Revolution of 1972, re-vealed a popular clamor for individual liberties and civil rights, to the point of overthrowing the French monarchy. So, there was a lot of debate about the exercise of this Popular Sovereignty and the form of government, influencing many generations. Benjamin Constant defended the representative system and that the tripartite separation of powers should also be regulated by a fourth power, which he called Neutral Power, with the purpose of acting in the balance and guarantee of individual freedoms. Thought for the Republic and adapted for the Constitutional Monarchy, in practice, something similar was adopted only in the Brazilian Constitution of 1824, through the Moderating Power.