Recall eleitoral enquanto instrumento de exercício da soberania popular

Abstract

In face of the crisis faced by the brazilian democratic system, the present study emerges with the aim of identify some of the elements that have undermined the representative democracy, discussing whether and how the use of recall elections - institute of the participatory democracy - could represent an element to strengthen semi-direct democracy as an instrument for the exercise of popular sovereignty. It also intends to inquire whether the impeachment processes that occurred in Brazil, after the Federal Constitution of 1988, were handled solely with a political bias or if based on legal-political reasons. As for the method, it is applied research that intends to collaborate with the existing propositions, having qualitative approach and exploratory objectives, in order to enable the better understanding and application of the object of study. It is clear that impeachment processes experienced by the country typified serious democratic disruptions that have replaced popular choice, materialized in the democratic electoral process, for pronouncements by parliamentarians who have exercised a legal-political judgment, whose reasons are not always convincing and which seems to be like an usurpation or imbalance between powers. So why not enable the people, who are the true holders of sovereign power, to re-examine their choice and, after a minimal expressive screen of discontent, to be consulted again for the purpose of revocation or even permanence of the elected? The principles of the popular participation and sovereignty, inscribed in articles 1 and 14 of the Constitution, substantiate such a proposition, representing the meaning of suffrage. Thus, it is considered, with due reservations, especially regarding to the need to establish a significant minimum to convene, in order to avoid the banalization of the institute, as well as the promotion of citizenship education, that the recall election, an instrument of the semi-direct democracy, already experienced in many modern democracies, corresponds to an element that may be regenerative of the brazilian democratic experience.