THE BRAZILIAN SUPREME COURT (STF) AND THE PROCESS OF THE RISE OF NEO-FASCISM IN BRAZIL: EMERGENCE OF JUDICIALIZED DEMOCRACY
Name: BRUNO ALVES DE SOUZA TOLEDO
Publication date: 30/10/2023
Examining board:
Name |
Role |
|---|---|
| ANA TARGINA RODRIGUES FERRAZ | Advisor |
Summary: This thesis presents the results of a qualitative research on the role played by the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) in the current context of Brazilian democracy, characterized by the rise of neo-fascism and in the context of capital in structural crisis. Despite the fact that the construction of bourgeois democracy is marked by permanent crisis, given the limits imposed on it by Capital, and without disregarding that such limits are extreme in dependent societies such as Brazil, where autocracy seems to be the appropriate way for interests of the elites, it is certain that there is a crisis of hegemony in Brazilian democracy precipitated by the parliamentary coup that interrupted the mandate of former President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 and accentuated by the rise of neo-fascism and the coming to power of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Neofascism constitutes one of the keys to understanding the current moment experienced by Brazil insofar as it explains the “new” advance of authoritarian ideals and political practices without necessarily implying the rupture of the formal landmarks of bourgeois democracy, but being instrumental to the process of deepening of armored democracy. In this scenario of authoritarian escalation, the increasingly leading role of the Judiciary, especially the STF, is identified when deciding on issues of an eminently political nature.
The central objective of the study is therefore limited to identifying the meaning emanating from the STF's decisions in the face of the rise of the neo-fascist project and the threats to the 1988 democratic pact in order to understand the role of the STF in the process of shielding the Brazilian State in contemporary times. To this end, alongside the bibliographical reference, constructed by the articulation between the chosen theoretical categories (Capital Crisis - Armored Democracy - Neofascism - Supremocracy)
we chose to analyze, from a Marxist-based theoretical perspective, nine Claims for Non-compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF) proposals or with the direct participation of representatives of civil society in the first two years of the Bolsonaro Government and whose object was related to democratic principles capable of impacting the process of shielding the State. As a
result, the initial hypothesis of the study based on the formation of the trap of judicialized democracy is confirmed. In the appearance of the phenomenon, the STF has fulfilled its role as guardian of the Constitution and combatted the advance of neo-fascism by maintaining the rules for the functioning of democracy. In essence, however, this process of transferring public debate and democratic prerogatives typical of other Powers of the Republic to the STF can generate, in the medium and long term, greater corrosion of the democratic structure. The trap in judicializing the major issues relating to Democracy appears to be a strategy typical of the “siren song” of the dominant classes in order to give the appearance of full functioning of the institutions of the Democratic State of Law, while, essentially, it seeks to transfer each increasingly the unraveling of decisive conflicts within civil society into the controlled environment of the judiciary which, structurally designed to function without popular interference, will ultimately make private interests prevail as well as general interests in an evident reinforcement of the process of democratic
shielding.
