Os signos da República e da Tirania na crítica política de Eduardo Prado durante a transição do século XIX para o século XX

The aim of this study is to examine how the São Paulo intellectual Eduardo Prado (1860-1901) mobilized the signs of the Republic and Tyranny in his criticism of the Brazilian republican regime during the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. I seek theoretical inspiration in the reflections on neo-Roman republicanism as formulated by the authors of the so-called “Cambridge School”, above all Quentin Skinner and Philip Pettit. Prado gained notoriety throughout the 1890s because of his confrontation with Brazilian institutions, becoming one of the main leaders of the political movement that tried to restore the Monarchy. The article is divided into three parts. First, I examine how Eduardo Prado mobilized the political vocabulary of classical republicanism to define the Monarchy as a “crowned Republic”. Next, I analyze his efforts to criticize the military governments that consolidated the Republic through the use of the sign of “tyranny”, as formulated by the canonical authors of classical republicanism, especially Aristotle and Montesquieu. Finally, I show how the author used the concept of “tyranny” to criticize the modern conception of historical time, in direct dialogue with the conservative thinking that had been confronting progressive utopias since the end of the 18th century.