Jungastian Transition to Democracy

Prior to the takeover by the Frente de Salvação Nacional (FSN) in 1921, and the resulting Ditadura da Renovação, Jungastia had a significant, if brief experience with democracy, the opening of suffrage to all citizens over the age of 21 under the short lived Jungastian Republic of 1907-1921. The Republic’s institutions were poorly managed and poorly functioning, and frequently led to collapses of governments, indeed in the fourteen years of the Republic no less than eighteen governments fell, prior to José Ferreira Coutinho and the FSN gaining the premiership in 1920.

Background: the Frente de Salvação Nacional era
The chaotic years of the Republic were replaced with the Declaration of 23 Abril in 1921, following a year of consolidation by the FSN who had in the elections of 1920 become the largest party in the fractured Congress. Whilst not having a majority, the front found allies in the Partido Popular and the Catholic Party. The FSN promised order, a return to tradition from the modernity of the Republic, and strict discipline.

The election of José Ferreira Coutinho as Prime Minister by the Congress on 12 December 1920 started a chain of events that would lead to the suspension of the republican constitution and the abolition of the congress some 5 months later. Coutinho swiftly and via a President - Marcelo Pisani da Silva - who was largely sympathetic to the ideals of the FSN, consolidated power in his hands, and that of the cabinet.

The Declaration was the culmination of the concentration of power by Coutinho and his party, and their easy time in finding support from the heads of the armed forces. It replaced the democratic republic with a nominally and highly  dictatorship, with Coutinho as titular Prime Minister, and a reinstatement of the monarchy, albeit in a rump form, with the Constitution of 1922 placing the monarch as a figure head with no power leaving Coutinho a dictator in all but name.

The formidable were used to maintain order, and whilst the constitution contained a prohibition on capital punishment, summary execution, torture and exile were used on a widespread basis. The government banned all political parties and trade unions, save for the FSN, which was transformed in to an all pervasive organisation involved in everything from high politics, to community days out and events.

The regime in the early years saw a revitilsation of the Jungastian economy, and a large change in living standards for those in rural areas, tied in with the mass mechanisation of society. The FSN enforced a high degree of traditionalism in almost all aspects of society, playing on the historical figures and events, but borrowed highly from theory with its frequent and impassioned fetishisation of technological advancements and mechanical progress. In latter years, economic stagnation began to creep in, with the rigid suppression of any non-Jungatiastian culture, and the persecution of non-catholics significantly harming economic performance.