During the 1950s, a few years before the suspension of dem- ocratic government by Brazil's military, the citizens of S5o Paulo on one occasion went to the polls and, after considering the choices, elected a hippopotamus, a write-in candidate, to the city council.
The hippo, a popular attraction at the city zoo, was never sworn in. But the episode illustrates the streak of good-humored cynicism that has helped Brazilians endure a century of politi- cal ups and downs. Over the past 95 years, the...