Grouping, leading and surveilling

The vote as a collective practice in 19th century Brazil (province of São Paulo, 1846-1881)

Abstract

Voting, in contemporary democracies, is seen as an exercise of citizenship that must be practiced – freely and consciously – by each individual. In Brazil in the 19th century, this vision was not consolidated or fully established. Many studies have already shown that nineteenth-century elections were dominated by different types of fraud and violence; and that, therefore, the votes did not express the “popular will”. From this perspective, the participation of poor free men at the polls was generally seen under the sign of dependence. Proposing another reading key to analyze the role of voting and the individuals with the right to exercise it, this article highlights the collective and public nature of voting in the Brazilian Empire and, particularly, in the province of São Paulo during the second half of the 19th century. Using various sources, such as laws, letters, official correspondence, and contemporary reports, seeks to demonstrate that voting as a collective practice is explained not only by the socioeconomic, political, and cultural conditions of voters at the time, but also by the definitions established by the electoral legislation between 1846 and 1881. In this way, one can ask whether in the 19th century there existed – and how it could exist – the so-called “free vote”. A vote not necessarily corrupted or falsified; but, in any case, a vote that was exercised under conditions very different from those in which the same act is practiced today.