When President Goulart took office, Brazil stood at the brink of civil war. When he resigned, another civil war was threatening. In between lay a span of time whose full meaning for the country may not be manifest until much later. Parliament and the military had allowed Vice President Goulart to succeed President Quadros with misgivings; indeed, only to avoid the civil war that was shaping up. Nevertheless, he was not allowed to step into the presidential palace until he had agreed to a constitutional amendment that created the new office of prime minister and transferred to it a batch of presidential powers designed to strengthen the authority of the parliament over the executive.
In the following period Goulart proved to be an extraordinarily adroit politician. He began to maneuver his cronies into key positions, and he saddled the new parliamentary system with every unsolved problem, so that there was a general impression that everything would be put in order if only the President regained his former authority. In a subsequent plebiscite, Goulart won by an enormous majority, and the detested parliamentary system was thrown out.
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