Democratic legitimation without inclusion: An evolutionary approach to brazilian societal crisis

Abstract

In Marcelo Neves' perspective, political dissent plays a fundamental role in a constitutional democratic polity. However, the continuing divergence between the opposition and situationist parties is at risk in Brazil. In the first decades of the twenty-first century, the political system has degraded in a Schmittian fashion. By using a political language that avoids debate and entrenches a division between friends and enemies, the ascension of far-right politics has attempted to crush the opposition and delegitimize relevant social policies. The article discusses the current state of Brazilian politics through the lenses of multilevel selection evolutionary theory, by proposing that the destabilization of Brazilian political system derives from historical deficiencies in the cultural, organizational systemic structural foundations of Brazilian democracy which, nonetheless, maintain its institutions through the means of psychological and cultural legitimation. As a result, Brazilian constitutional regime can be conceived of as a symbolic constitutional democracy, Marcelo Neves's description of constitutional formal regimes which do not preserve the material conditions necessary to grant civil, political and social rights to most citizens.