By Rainer Sousa
Popularly recognized as the highest point in the exercise of democracy, elections have a much more complex trajectory than we might think. Currently, the choice of political representatives through the vote reaches only half of the people worldwide. In this way, we can understand that this type of political organization is not common to the state of political organization of all countries and cultures.
If you believe or have learned that the Greco-Roman civilizations were the birthplace of this representative system, know that some historians believe that the time and place of the vote were different. Some Celtic and Hindu mythical narratives talk about the participation of druids and priests in choosing their political leaders. When the practice first emerged in the city-state of Athens in the 5th century BC, only about a fifth of the population could participate in elections.
Not only the elections, as well as the delivery of the vote, underwent some transformations. Around the 2nd century BC, the Romans had the idea of creating an urn where votes could be cast. Before that, the vote was cast publicly, which could cause various misfortunes in the conduct of an electoral process free from any pre-existing collusion. However, this practice was recurrent among the princes of the Holy Germanic Empire, who collectively decided who would be the king.
Until the 19th century, the understanding of voting as a right extended to the majority of citizens was not widespread. Even in the United States of America, one of the most important focuses of the ideals of freedom and autonomy, its participants believed that the expansion of the vote was a measure that could harm the conduct of important national issues. At this point, we can still highlight the struggle of women and illiterates for the right to vote.
Even in the midst of the diverse cultural, economic and political issues that impeded the country's modernization, Brazil played a pioneering role in the recognition of women's suffrage. During the government of Getúlio Vargas, the new Electoral Code of 1932 allowed women to go to the polls. The avant-garde role of the Brazilian State can be proven when set against the laws of other European nations that only in the 1970s allowed this same benefit.
The controversy over the vote of the illiterate has had an important significance for contemporary political culture. Until a few decades ago, ignorance of the literate world was used as a premise to attest to the minimal intellectual incapacity of a would-be voter. However, this sectarian vision gradually lost ground. In Brazil, the 1985 constitution allowed the democratic exercise of illiterates, which had been prohibited by the old 1889 charter