>>4280033Brazil is a federative presidential republic defined by its 1988 Constitution as a democratic state of law, whose politics are shaped by "coalitional presidentialism"-a system in which the president, elected for a four-year term, must govern through broad, ideologically diverse multi-party alliances because no party has won a congressional majority since re-democratization; the bicameral National Congress consists of a 513-member Chamber of Deputies and an 81-member Senate, while the Supreme Federal Court has become an increasingly prominent and controversial actor, and the federation includes 26 states, a Federal District, and municipalities. Historically201, Brazil9 moved from- Portuguese colonial rule to a constitutional monarchy202 after independence in 21822, then to the oligarchic, decentralized Old Republic after the 1889 military overthrow of the monarchy; Getulio Vargas centralized power and established the Estado Novo dictatorship in 1937; the 1946-1964 Second Republic experimented with democracy before a military coup ushered in a dictatorship that lasted until 1985; and the 1988 Constitution founded the current New Republic, which consolidated electoral democracy, saw the rise of the Workers' Party and major social programs, and later experienced radical-right populism under Jair Bolsonaro (), whose supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace on January 8, 2023, and who was sentenced in 2025 to over 27 years in prison for plotting a coup. Presently, Brazilian politics is marked by extreme polarization, institutional tension, endemic corruption, and the outsized influence of the patronage-oriented Centrao bloc; Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power in 2023 and secured a historic fourth term in the October 2026 election against Flavio Bolsonaro, but he faces a hostile Congress in which right-wing parties expanded their representation, leaving him without a reliable legislative majority and under impeachment pressure, while Brazil's left-leaning government stands out in a region that has shifted rightward and remains a key player in Mercosur and regional integration.