This article evaluates, under historical perspective, some lacks in Brazil's defense policy, that are central to understand the continuity of a framework characterized by the military participation and the civil absence in the elaboration and implementation process of Defense policy, incompatible with a democratic governance context. Despite some initiatives towards to regulate the armed forces limits, according their essential functions and missions, like the creation of the Defense Ministry and the publication of the National Defense Strategy, it prevails a situation of institutional fragility and public power vacuum that are conducive for the military actuation.
Brazil; Defense; Civil Control; Democracy