Brasil, Portugal e a crise do antigo sistema colonial: elementos para a compreensão do conceito moderno de Constituição

Abstract

This paper adresses the objective situation in which Brazil and Portugal were in the general context of the crisis of the Old Regime. At first, it deals mainly with the perspective of Caio Prado Júnior and Fernando Novais. After, it criticizes the insufficiency of an approach based only on economic history, but recognizes that this approach is, at the same time, indispensable. Finally, it states that both, economic and non-economic approaches, are fundamental to the understanding of the modern concept of Constitution.