A Propriedade e o Bem Comum

Rio de Janeiro, do Século XIX ao Início do XX

Abstract

This article explores the relation between the common good – understood as public health, safety, and facilities necessary to promote people’s well-being – and property in Brazil, from the 18^th to the early 20^th century. The central argument is that late-19^th and early-20^th century urban and public health reforms propelled debates and transformations in the relation between the common good and private property. Based on a historiographical review and multiple primary sources, such as judicial records, legal doctrine, and newspapers, I show the construction of an exclusionary notion of common good that treated the poor, mostly Black people, as obstacles to the achievement of collective objectives. Then, I show the intensification of restrictions imposed on private property in the name of the common good and analyze the transformations in this relation during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Focusing on the city of Rio de Janeiro, I show how early-20^th century urban and public health reforms created an arena where property owners, tenants, activists, lawyers, state attorneys, judges and jurists debated this relation. I conclude by pointing out the relevance of the relation between property and the common good for the history of property in Brazil.