The National Congress and defense policy of Brazil

This research aims to analyze the behavior of the central legislature in five key moments in the institutionalization of defense policy in Brazil: (i) the approval of the first version of the National Defense Policy, (ii) the creation of the Ministry of Defence (iii) the approval of the second version of the National Defense Policy, (iv) the approval of the National Defense Strategy, and (v) the approval of the Supplementary Law No. 136 of 2010 which, among other things, provides for the creation of the Book white National Defense. This process covers the mandates of the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (1995-2010). Besides the description of each of the above moments, we discuss the performance of the country on the agenda of regional and international security and are raised the resources available to Congress in order to strengthen their participation in the formulation of defense policy. The approval processes for each of the policies and laws are related to provide a view of the Legislative Power?s capacity or not to change matters that in general have been proposed by the Executive Power. Finally, the study identifies how the progress in the participation of the Legislative Power in matters of defense policy was shy, but important because it signifies the increase of representation in popular theme (AU)