Município, Município Neutro

Município, Município Neutro, the area of jurisdiction associated with an incorporated town (vila) in Brazil. The municipality was the basic administrative unit of the Portuguese Empire. During the colonial period, municipal councils were limited formally to local administration, but the municípios of the interior developed extralegal political and judicial powers to the point of challenging crown governors and viceroys. Under the Empire, the municipal councils were formally reduced to administrative entities by the law of 1 October 1828. The município neutro was created in 1834 under the Additional Act to the constitution, which created the provincial legislative assemblies. It designated the municipality of Rio de Janeiro as a separate entity without independent municipal representation, analogous to a federal district.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edmundo Zenha, O município no Brasil, 1532–1700 (1948).

Richard M. Morse, "Brazil's Urban Development: Colony and Empire," in From Colony to Nation: Essays on the Independence of Brazil, edited by A. J. R. Russell-Wood (1975).

Additional Bibliography

Bieber, Judy. Power, Patronage, and Political Violence: State Building on a Brazilian Frontier, 1822–1889. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Ferreira, Marieta de Moraes, ed. A República na velha província: Oligarquias e crise no estado do Rio de Janeiro (1889 1930). Rio de Janeiro: Rio Fundo, 1989.

O'Dwyer, Eliane Cantarino. Quilombos: Identidade étnica e territorialidade. Rio de Janeiro: Editora FGV, 2002.

Santos Junior, Orlando Alves dos. Democracia e governo local: Dilemas da reforma municipal no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: Observatório IPPUR/UFRJ-FASE: Editora Revan, 2001.

                                   Judy Bieber Freitas