Análise retórica do Processo Constituinte Brasileiro de 1987/1988: O relato vencedor da Constituição Cidadã

Abstract

This article intends to carry out a rhetorical analysis of the construction of the term “Citizen Constitution”. Used as an epithet for the Constitution of Brazil of 1988, the expression was coined with the intention of overcoming the dictatorial regime that it previously watched, consolidating itself in this way as a winning story. The general objective of the work is to understand the formation of this narrative, considering that the most varied groups that participated in the 1987/1988 constituent process exerted pressure on each other and on the constituent legislators, in order to approve the constitutional text that most interested them. The methodology used is rhetoric that, through a tripartite view of material, strategic and analytical, uses the dissoi-logoi, or exposition of contrary arguments, to, in the end, carry out an analysis that is intended to be equidistant. To this end, the rhetorical conception, adopted as the theoretical and methodological basis of this work, is opposed to the problem of traditional legal hermeneutics and its search for the correct answers. As a central problem, this work faces the question: is it possible to extract a single narrative from the Constitution? It is concluded that, although “citizen” is an expression that permeates the imagination of Brazilian constitutionalism, influencing its interpreters, the Constitution has limits regarding the realization of citizenship.