The "Revolution" is a tree of secular life: The Jornal do Brasil and the invention of democracy and legality of civil-military coup and the military government (1964-1968)

Abstract

The research intends to analyze the editorials published by “Jornal do Brasil” (representative of the great press) during the military-civil coup until 1968. The objective is to understand the justification for the military civil coup and the military government considering the speech changes of this newspaper in regard to the everyday politics. As “Jornal do Brasil” defended the intervention into Goulart´s constitutional government, like the most of the press, it´s conjectured that it continued to support the military government. The newspaper stressed that democracy should be preserved through democracy institutions and legality and their continuity in association with the military power. Even saying that democracy wasn’t practiced in that context, “JB” stated that the military government had it as the objective of its acts. It has been noticed that in spite of a contradiction in the editorial opinion, which varies between joining and criticism, it is always willing to guide the government actions. Therefore, “Jornal do Brasil” helped the military group to legitimate themselves before society through legalistic democratic speeches, but also in many occasions accused the government pointing out the political farces, for example the Constitution of 1967 and the indirect election, or criticizing the governmental immobility reminding, in several moments, promises made in 1964 that were not fulfilled – these promises intended to benefit the social group to which the newspaper integrated and represented. In other words, it preserves the democratic speech but also elaborates the conception that an arbitrary regime could improve the democracy and the development of capitalism.