THE ENGINE ROOM OF THE 1988 CONSTITUTION AND ITS UNEQUAL DEMOCRATIC TRIANGULATION

Abstract

In its organic section, or “engine room”, the 1988 Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil structured the institutional practice of democracy on the representative, participatory and direct lines, but in an uneven way, giving greater weight to the first. The coexistence between different political models defines, according to the Argentine jurist Roberto Gargarella, a mixed Constitution, an archetype quite common in Latin America. Thus, the present text seeks to demonstrate that the unequal democratic triangulation by the Constitution obstructs the political activism of civil society in Brazil, suggesting changes to activate it. Through the historical-deductive method, a dialogue of the Brazilian reality is promoted with the work “La sala de Máquinas de la Constitución - Dos siglos de constitucionalismo en América Latina [1810-2010]”, by Gargarella. At first, the Constitution's mixed classification of 88 is examined, similar to other Latin American charters. Then, the paper moves to the constitutional description of direct and participatory strands, demonstrating how the practice of its tools is connected, respectively, to the legislative and executive representative branches. The results show that, by means of a liberal-conservative compact, representation dominates the Brazilian political scenario, but that, if due constitutional translations, civil society could obtain institutional margin to influence, in a republican way, the directions of national democracy.