Brazil went from being a colony to an empire in 1822 with relatively less conflict than occurred for most of the countries of Latin America in the nineteenth century. From 1822 to 1889, a legitimate monarchy governed the country and brought an unusual level of political stability. But the transition from empire to republic was not an easy one, and from 1889 to the present Brazil passed through several periods of centralizing and decentralizing regimes and slowly and hesitatingly moved from an oligarchic and limited democratic republic to a full democracy. But that long process from 1889 to the present was broken by military coups and military interventions and a political party system that was fragmented and incapable of sustaining and developing a viable political elite. It was the shock of a long and ruthless military dictatorship that finally created a climate of political compromise and democratic commitment that has enabled Brazil to emerge as a very powerful and well-structured democratic state in the past quarter century.

A recent commentator, when analyzing the 1998 election results, declared that they showed the strengthening of democracy in Brazil. But he said that perhaps it might never be possible to know if the new Brazilian democracy would pass through the final test, which would be the acceptance of Lula's victory and that of the Labor Party. Four years later, Lula won the elections in a climate of total peace and assumed the government.