JUSTICE AND/IN CRISIS: BRAZIL’S AUTHORITARIAN TRADITION AND THE DEMOCRATIC RESISTANCE OF THE 1988 CONSTITUTION

Abstract

The pendulum movement between authoritarianism and
democracy has been part of the history of colonial, independent and republican Brazil for more than 500 years. The 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil was born with the ambition of confronting the authoritarian tradition and being a democratic resistance based on citizenship and human rights. After 35 years, it is necessary to analyze the course of the Democratic Rule of Law from the end of the 20th century to the threshold of the 21st century, not only in relation to the Executive and Legislative Branches, but also to the Judiciary and its relationship with the reorientation of the authoritarian-democratic compass. This study, divided into two sections, aims, respectively, to reflect on the inscription of the Judiciary in constitutional history and its judicial and political link to the crisis recently expressed in the Brazilian State and society. The conclusion identifies the Judiciary as a political power, whose actions and omissions contribute to and reflect the authoritarian and democratic cycle of national history, given that its members are also the fruit of inheritance and interests, in effect calling for the continuous, fundamental and inevitable democratization of Justice. Finally, the methodology uses the genealogical method, mainly, and the archaeological method, in addition, to the qualitative approach, the basic nature, the explanatory objective and the bibliographic and documentary procedures.