O papel da democracia semidireta e seus institutos no brasil atual

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze the mechanisms of semi-direct democracy brought by the 1988 Brazilian Federal Constitution: plebiscite, referendum and popular initiative, as well as the removal of the elected government members and lawmakers from their office, as a right of the people by their will (the “recall” of elected public officers). “Recall” was not included in Brazilian legal system, although it is an important instrument in order to improve popular participation in politics. For a better understanding of the institutes, this study proposes a general research about the characteristics of democracy over the years, and its variations according to the social needs, which results in the traditional classification: direct democracy, indirect/representative democracy and semi-direct/participative democracy. At this point, it was necessary to briefly analyze the theories of political representation, in order to elucidate the possibilities of popular participation and its limits. Considering the issues related to representativeness, that result from the "pure" indirect form of democracy, this study, without aiming to end the debate, focuses on identifying the role of those mechanisms, the advantages and needs of their improvement, and how they have been adopted in Brazil