Redemocratization Process Research Articles

The Fiocruz archives: sources for research on science and health during the military dictatorship (1964-1985)

The scope of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the country's political redemocratization process from the 1980s onwards and the issue of identification, preservation and access to the archives of information and security bodies that worked to combat the opponents of the authoritarian regime during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). It addresses the dictatorship's action on university and scientific institutions, to highlight the importance of the archive of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, as well as the personal files maintained by scientists and donated to Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. It features archives and collections organized and available for public consultation, which can serve as research sources for historical studies on science and health during the dictatorship.

No higher law: The Uruguayan plebiscite of 1980 as a failed constituent moment

Abstract On November 30, 1980, the people of Uruguay were called on to vote on a new constitution whose objective was to legalize the military dictatorship that had ruled Uruguay since 1973. The proposed constitution would reestablish elections, political parties, and an independent judiciary, but all subject to overrule by the National Security Council (COSENA), the junta of military leaders that acted as the nation’s de facto ruling body. Despite the highly repressive political environment in which the plebiscite was held, the citizenry rejected the draft in resounding fashion by a vote of 57% to 43%. Although the Plebiscite of 1980 was certainly a “failure” from the regime’s point of view, it is considered a founding moment in Uruguayan history during which the dictatorship was delegitimized and the process of redemocratization triggered, culminating in a democratic transition in 1985. This case illustrates that constitutional failures can be successes in the long term when they launch deeper processes of democratization or constitutionalism.

Uma experiência precursora do SUS com a participação de Paulo Freire

Abstract The text is based on a round table held at the Faculty of Education (FE) of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) as one of the activities to commemorate Paulo Freire’s Centenary (2021). It aims to record part of his time at the university, from 1980 to 1991, based on the work conducted with FE and the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) through training and extension activities at the Paulínia-SP School Health Center. It also describes and analyses the agendas of the country’s re-democratization process, the clashes over public policies in the National Constituent Assembly, and the process of setting up an integrated and universal system of education and collective public health from a participatory perspective.

A precursor experience of the SUS with the participation of Paulo Freire.

The text is based on a round table held at the Faculty of Education (FE) of the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) as one of the activities to commemorate Paulo Freire's Centenary (2021). It aims to record part of his time at the university, from 1980 to 1991, based on the work conducted with FE and the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM) through training and extension activities at the Paulínia-SP School Health Center. It also describes and analyses the agendas of the country's re-democratization process, the clashes over public policies in the National Constituent Assembly, and the process of setting up an integrated and universal system of education and collective public health from a participatory perspective.

Ninguna ley superior: El plebiscito uruguayo de 1980 como constituyente fallidoNo higher law: The Uruguayan Plebiscite of 1980 as a failed constituent moment

Abstract On November 30, 1980, the people of Uruguay were called on to vote on a new constitution whose objective was to legalize the military dictatorship that had ruled Uruguay since 1973. The proposed constitution would reestablish elections, political parties and an independent judiciary, but all subject to overrule by the National Security Council (COSENA), the junta of military leaders that acted as the nation’s de facto ruling body. Despite the highly repressive political environment in which the plebiscite was held, the citizenry rejected the draft in resounding fashion by a vote of 57% to 43%. Although the Plebiscite of 1980 was certainly a “failure” from the regime’s point of view, it is considered a founding moment in Uruguayan history during which the dictatorship was delegitimized and the process of redemocratization triggered, culminating in a democratic transition in 1985. This case illustrates that constitutional failures can be successes in the long term when they launch deeper processes of democratization or constitutionalism.

Negacionismo histórico e emergência da extrema direita A crise do regime moderno de historicidade no Brasil (2019-2022)

Abstract This article discusses how denialism of the civil-military dictatorship constitutes a pivotal element in the political propaganda of Jair Bolsonaro and the Brazilian far right. We aim to understand the connections between, on the one hand, the disavowal of our last dictatorship and state terrorism and, on the other, political attempts to undermine the legitimacy of human rights and social movements during the New Republic (1985-2020). We posit that Bolsonaro’s vision for consolidating power entails a reimagining of the republic’s foundations. Crucially, this endeavor involves an attempt to reshape the hegemonic memory regime first established during the redemocratization process. In this sense, the central hypothesis of this article is that historical negationism constitutes a fundamental and structuring axis in the power project of the renewed far right, emerging in a moment of crisis in the modern regime of historicity alongside the rise of presentism. In this regard, the political use of the recent past by the Bolsonaro government hinges on authoritarian political culture, anticommunism, and the purported crusade against corruption. These uses intend to undermine any rights-based agenda, thereby paving the way for the consecration of the neoliberal model.

Seminars on urban design and the constitution of the discipline in mid-1980s Brazil

ABSTRACT A series of seminars held in Brasilia in the mid-1980s institutionalized Urban Design as a discipline in Brazil. It triggered a new approach to urban interventions, in consonance with the country’s re-democratization process and the critical debates fostered by the new political condition, following the end of the dictatorship. This paper explores the seminars’ outcomes in order to account for the rationale of urban design in Brazil, when social milieu, cultural character and participatory processes became fundamental design tools. By examining this turning point, the paper adds to the historiography of the genesis of Urban Design in Brazil while highlighting the particularities of the local approach to the global term.

Crises contemporâneas: retrocessos sociais, políticas de saúde e desafios democráticos

Abstract In the context of globalization, mentioning contemporary democracy, science, social-economic, sanitary, and environmental crises is recurrent. In Brazil, these crises have worsened due to historical-cultural structures that carry deep unresolved problems and due to governments that have worn down the national institutions that were reconstructed with hard work during its re-democratization process. In this editorial, we reflect on the national crisis context experienced in Brazil in the last years, situating social regressions resulting from neoliberal and conservative policies carried out by the last two heads of the federal government and placing some challenges to be faced by the country beginning by a movement to retrieve democracy.

Re-democratization in Chile: Is the “New” Democracy Better than the “Old”?

ABSTRACT Much of the literature on democratic transitions has focused on the transition from authoritarianism to democracy, but few studies have examined how democracies that re-emerged compare to those that existed in the past. Examining the Chilean case, this study explores the degree to which the “new” democracy has recovered its former strength, posing a similar question for other Latin American countries. It considers the conceptualization of quality of democracy that underpins this controversy and explores the methodological challenges of intertemporal comparison, which may be relevant for other cases that have experienced periods of authoritarian rule and process of re-democratization. We find that, overall, democracy in the contemporary period is more robust. Yet, to an important extent, indices’ different understandings of the concept of the quality of democracy are relevant in terms of the degree to which they emphasize procedural aspects versus democratic outcomes.

La reacción patriota en Brasil

This article analyzes the mobilization process that began in 2013 in Brazil, whose culmination is the election of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. My argument is that there was no sudden irruption of a new right wing in Brazil as various authors and public intellectuals have proposed. On the contrary, reactions to reforms began to appear from the beginning of the redemocratization process in the 1980s and have grown gradually ever since, having especially accelerated with the 2003 election of the first left-wing president since the 1964 coup.

Violações dos direitos indígenas e os limites da justiça de transição no Brasil

The redemocratization process in Brazil did not make it possible to obtain the truth about the civil-military dictatorship. This article analyzes Post-Conflict Justice process in Brazil, with an emphasis on the analysis of violations of indigenous rights and deaths caused by direct actions or omissions by the Brazilian State. Some forms of violations perpetrated by agents of the Indian Protection Service and the National Indian Foundation were analyzed, which are included in the Figueiredo Report, a set of historical sources analyzed in the research. Reports of violations against the Aikewara indigenous people in the context of the Araguaia guerrilla were also analyzed. In the analysis it was found that there is an imminent need to move forward in search of memory, truth, reparation, and justice for indigenous peoples. Therefore, understanding the advances and limits of transitional justice for indigenous peoples is essential in improving our democracy.

Truth commissions and democratic transitions: Neither truth and reconciliation nor democratization in Nepal

Truth commissions have become increasingly viewed as necessary for the establishment and consolidation of democracy in states undergoing transitions from authoritarian rule. Yet, their ability to function effectively and contribute to democratization rests, in part, on the preexistence of core democratic values in the states and societies they serve. This article examines how this paradoxical relationship between truth commissions and democratic transitions has played out in the case of Nepal. It argues that, although a truth and reconciliation commission was included in Nepal’s 2006 peace agreement to facilitate the country’s redemocratization process, the implicit political compromise on which it was established—together with a problematic legislative process, lack of commitment to human rights, and weak respect for the rule of law—has made it nearly impossible for the TRC to make any meaningful contribution to truth, justice, or democracy.

Three historical narratives on advertising self-control in Brazil

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze how, in three different contexts, the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation narratively uses its past to build an official history concerning its origins that legitimates advertising self-control as a hegemonic narrative.Design/methodology/approachBy using the historical research and the “uses of the past” approach, this study identifies, analyzes and confronts three organizational histories of Conar’s origins (both its official and unofficial versions) in the context of the creation of the Brazilian system of advertising self-regulation.FindingsAfter a thematic analysis of the documentary sources, the narratives on the National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation’s origins and the self-control process were grouped into three versions: the narrative under the military regime: 1976/1980; the narrative during the process of re-democratization of the country: 1981/1991 and the contemporary narrative: from 2005 onwards. These narratives were confronted and, in consequence, provided, each of them, a different interpretation of the context surrounding the creation and justification for advertising self-control.Originality/valueThe study shows how a consumer defense organization re-historicized its past strategically to gain legitimacy in three different ways through time. It also reveals that organizations strategically use their past to build an intended vision of the future, thus having more agency than the hegemonic literature in management studies usually guarantees. Finally, it exposes the malleability of past narratives through which organizations play a critical role in the ongoing struggle for competing uses of the past. Therefore, the study identifies different organizational stories through time that allow researchers to reflect on several strategic uses of the past by organizations.

Clinical solutions performed in non-conventional settings

This paper presents the Brazilian specificities of the development of its public health and social assistance policies since the re-democratization process in the 1980s until today. Besides, it presents a wide range of conflicts between the economic interests and the political activism accountable for the advances of the public policies implementation. This evolution is presented as a subsidy to the reader’s understanding of the development of a clinical solution for non-conventional settings specific to the Brazilian social and economic reality. Successful clinical experiences in health and social assistance based on phenomenology are presented, not only for diagnosis purposes, namely for understanding the people, for the context in the question, as well as the successful management development. The first case describes the provision of a peripatetic group therapy service, prior as a walking clinical practice, where the notion of territoriality and the dynamics of group interaction facilitate the understanding of the patients, while the intrinsic condition of the work also facilitates the establishment of transferential relationships. The second case describes the complexity of social welfare policy challenges through the clinical intervention while presenting a family in a social and economic vulnerability context.

Autoritarismo e democracia nos filmes “Jânio a 24 Quadros” (1981, de Luís Alberto Pereira) e “Jango” (1984, de Silvio Tendler)

Este artigo trata de como os temas do autoritarismo e da democracia são abordados nos filmes Jânio a 24 Quadros (1981, de Luís Alberto Pereira) e Jango (1984, de Silvio Tendler), dois documentários produzidos durante o processo de redemocratização do Brasil. Por meio da análise dos aspectos formais/estéticos dos dois filmes, pretendemos estabelecer um diálogo entre Cinema Documentário e História do Brasil.

Escola de rock: um olhar sociológico sobre o rock’n’roll

O presente artigo aborda o projeto de extensão “Escola de Rock: um olhar sociológico sobre o rock'n'roll”, desenvolvido no Instituto Federal Catarinense (IFC), campus de Videira - SC, unindo arte e a reflexão sobre o mundo e a sociedade. Este artigo tem como objetivo pensar o rock’n’roll como instrumento para a reflexão crítica da sociedade, bem como elemento que pode ser utilizado no pensamento sociológico e sua aplicação em um projeto de extensão. Por meio de encontros quinzenais no IFC, no contraturno das aulas e com alunos dos mais variados cursos, conseguimos estudar temas relacionados à sociologia com uma temática previamente escolhida, relacionando bandas, músicas e a sociedade. O projeto também realizou atividades mensalmente em uma escola pública do município de Videira, com alunos do segundo ano do Ensino Médio, durante o período de aulas da disciplina de Sociologia. Nessa escola focou-se na discussão de como o rock brasileiro, dos anos 1980, pensou o processo de redemocratização do país e a criação da nova Constituição Federal em 1988, o que estimulou nos alunos dessa escola reflexões sobre o rock e a sociedade brasileira. O rock’n’roll influenciou estilos de vida, a moda e os comportamentos dos jovens questionando a realidade. Assim, conhecer a evolução do rock e suas conexões e interações com os processos sociais, políticos, econômicos e culturais permite que se discutam as estruturas econômicas, políticas e culturais de nossa sociedade.

Access to the Brazilian agenda of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1985)

Abstract This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

Access to the Brazilian agenda of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1985)

Abstract This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

As transições políticas no Brasil e seu efeito na educação brasileira

O estudo analisa as transições políticas e econômicas no Brasil, principalmente as acontecidas após do impeachment da presidente Dilma Rousseff, em 2016, e dos efeitos que tiveram no campo educacional brasileiro. Por sua vez, examina as reformas políticas e as ações que consubstanciaram a transição política para o ultra neoliberalismo na condução do Estado, da economia, da política, da cultura e da educação. Essa agenda ultra neoliberal tem feito a defesa intransigente da liberdade econômica e do capitalismo financeiro-rentista, associada a uma perspectiva autoritária e conservadora, contrapor-se à construção democrático-participativa de um Estado mais social, que baliza o anseio do processo de redemocratização do país, consubstanciado em grande parte na Constituição Federal aprovada em 1988.

Rethinking the historical trajectory of ECE: From the “original sin” in democratization to redemocratization

Abstract This paper treats East-Central Europe as a region and investigates its common historical trajectory in the last decades. After 30 years of systemic change and 15 years of EU membership, it is high time for the re-evaluation and reconceptualization of the Europeanization and Democratization process in ECE. It is the key to understand the false start as the original sin in democratization and the reasons of ECE divergence from mainstream EU developments in order to prepare the redemocratization process. The progress of the Europeanization and Democratization process in ECE has been widely described in official documents, but for a balanced and complete picture it is necessary to present also the De-Europeanization and De-Democratization process from the very beginning. Basically, after the collapse of the bipolar world order in 1989, the Eastern enlargement was an economic and political necessity as a substantial part of the EU deepening and widening policy. The EU needed the extension of its economic space and political system that had also been pre-programmed in the mission statement of the Rome Treaty. At the same time, the new member states (NMS) needed the “Return to Europe” for their reintegration into the Western world. However, the capacity for this extension was actually missing on both sides, and it has remained so during the last 30 years of systemic change or the 15 years of EU membership. Altogether, this controversial process has produced a colorful picture of successes and failures in all NMS that will be analyzed in an ECE context.