Democracy: an achievable project?

Abstract

In 1985, Henrique Cláudio de Lima Vaz, published an paper entitled “Democracy and Society”. In a period of “exhaustion” of the totalitarian cycle, he considered as fundamental a reflection on democracy for those concerned “with the political destiny of Brazil”. The totalitarian cycle that seemed to come to an end in 1985, however, today, it appers to be resurfacing and gaining strength in the current Brazilian social and political context. It is therefore essential to reflect once again on democracy: is it really a possible project? Through the rereading of Lima Vaz's papers, and the reacquaintance of Jaguaribe and Rosenfield papers, which Vaz indicated as fundamental texts at that time, and taking into account the positions taken by Jacques Maritain and Jürgen Habermas, we propose in this article to reflect on democracy. Hence, it is a matter of re-proposing a discussion based on the paper of Lima Vaz, but now from a new context. To this end, this paper will be divided into four parts. In the first, we will put in question the relevance and legitimacy of the democratic project. In the second, we will define what the democratic system consists of. We shall see that the democratic project has not yet been fully achieved. Finally, in the last part, we will indicate some challenges that need to be faced in order for the democratic project to be realized.