Um beco sem saída? : transições e degradação democrática no Brasil e Paraguai

Abstract

The present study has as its object of research the transition processes in Brazil and Paraguay and the loss of democratic quality, or democratic degradation, currently experienced by these States. In Brazil, the election of Lula da Silva in 2002 and the completion of his term (2003-2006), as well as his re-election (2006-2010), and in Paraguay, the term of President Fernando Lugo (2008-2012) should result in democratic institutional consolidation in the country. However, Lula's successor, Dilma Rousseff (2011-2013 and 2014-2016) and Fernando Lugo, found themselves removed from power by impeachment processes whose constitution of legal bases were questionable. Therefore, in the dynamics of continuity and rupture during the transitional period, similar and disparate elements are sought that demonstrate the correlation between authoritarianism, transition and the resulting democratic regime, plus a fourth element, the process of democratic degradation. To this end, it mobilizes a historical-analytical research on the main elements of basic authoritarianism, an analysis of transitional processes of the same typology according to the theoretical framework adopted and as characteristics of the democracies inaugurated by such processes in order to analyze, in light the latter, the process of democratic degradation through parliamentary coups in the form of impeachment. It is hypothesized that the transitional elements were not basic elements in decision-making or in the removal procedures of democratically elected presidents, but that they exerted influence, having inaugurated or deepened some of the elements that made up the reasons or the means through which such processes were founded.