Abstract

REGO PASSOS, Cristhian; DE SOUSA FELIX MENDES, Karine Késsia  and  DE CARVALHO GUIMARAES, Jairo. The Paths of Brazilian Democracy: Lessons from the Perspectives of Robert Dahl’s Polyarchy and Anthony Giddens’ Dialogic Democracy. rev.estud.soc. [online]. 2022, n.81, pp.59-74.  Epub July 13, 2022. ISSN 0123-885X.  https://doi.org/10.7440/res81.2022.04.

The article describes Brazil’s democratic history as of the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889. Based on the theoretical perspectives of Robert Dahl’s polyarchy and Anthony Giddens’ dialogic democracy, it analyzes the alterations caused by Constitutional Amendment (EC) 97/2017 -which put an end to party coalitions in elections for offices accessible by the proportional system as of 2020- and by Decree 9759/2019. This extinguished several collegiate bodies such as councils, committees, commissions, and forums, among other instances in which civil society had the right to participate dialogically in elaboration, oversight, and decision making for programs and projects related to a wide range of public policies. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether these alterations limited or weakened the opportunities for critical and political deliberative discussion, in terms of the population’s levels of participation in democratic public spaces, referred to as the “public sphere.” In this regard, the following guiding question was formulated: what is the importance of spaces that favor dialogic democracy as a path that leads to the development of democracy (towards a polyarchy) in Brazil? To answer this question, a theoretical-qualitative research methodological approach was used. That is, the researcher, by the criterion of intentionality, chose the bibliography that would best fulfill his purposes, in order to respond to the study problem. The main conclusion was found to be that the devices of EC 97/2017 and Decree 9759/2019 weakened the spaces for critical and political-deliberative discussion on Brazilian democracy. This is because the former undermined political pluralism and the latter limited the dialogue between society and the state. This distanced Brazil from polyarchy and dialogic democracy. In terms of originality, the study develops a critical-reflexive position that explores the reconstruction of Brazilian democratic ideals, based on the arguments of the theorists referenced and on the normativity that has determined the repression of democratic opportunities for deliberation.

Keywords : Brazil; dialogic democracy; political representation; polyarchy.

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