After suggesting a theory about the political institutes designed to preserve the modern institutional order - the state of siege, the moderating power, and the judicial review - the article examines the dilemmas faced by the Brazilian Republic at the moment of its building after the extinction of the monarchy. Instead of the planned judicial review exercised by the Supreme Court, the new political order had to be guaranteed by the state of siege, an institutional mechanism brought from the Argentinian Constitution managed by the president of the Republic. Four different interpretations of this institution emerged during the 1890s: the liberal, the jacobine, the Republican "prude," and the conservative. The consecration of the latter interpretation would transform the state of siege into an instrument of government routinely employed for the benefit of oligarchic domination.
First Republic; State of siege; Moderating power; Judicial review