São públicas as contratações do estado brasileiro? - uma experiência de contratações públicas junto à comunidade Coqueiral em Aracaju/SE.

State intervention generally demands the purchase or rental of goods and services, and such acquisitions are subject to a number of indispensable legal frameworks. In the Brazilian State, Law 8.666 of 21 June 1993 and further norms regulate the necessity of a formal process, usually licitation. Given the importance of this subject to public and private spheres, one of the prerequisites of these formal contracting rules is the openness of public acts, and society s knowledge and accompaniment. The objective of this study is to investigate society s participation in public contracting, with the aim of debating theories surrounding the state/society relationship proposed by public political thought and authors in relation to legal aspects involving licitations. The principal question of this research is: despite the possibility of society s participation being predicted in the legal frameworks which orientate licitations, why is this social control not carried out? Why does it only occupy a secondary position to both individual and collective agents? In order to test some of this study s hypotheses, field research was carried out in the Coqueiral community in Aracaju, Sergipe, in relation to public acquisitions of goods and services during the period of May to September 2009. Research involved observation visits and guided interviews with the relevant community and public sector representatives. This project s hypotheses were confirmed, as this social control is not apparent, even in areas where popular participation is a strong component in asserting ones local rights, like in the Coqueiral community.

A democracia participativa na jurisdição constitucional brasileira: o amicus curiae enquanto mediador democrático no controle concentrado de constitucionalidade no Supremo Tribunal Federal

This master thesis aims to research the tension established between the judicial review and democratic theory which was always present in the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers. In this regard, the expansion of the Brazilian constitutional jurisdiction checked after the occurrence of the Federal Constitution of 1988 and the inertia of the Legislature in disciplinary relevant legal aspects of Brazilian society contributed to a hyperactivity of the Supreme Court. However, in a complex society of context, as is the Brazilian society, there are contained demands and political controversies that hardly would be well represented or resolved through the action of the Court of ministers at the expense of other government bodies. Among the supremacy of Parliament and the legitimacy deficit of these magistrates, is the constitutional text and the social fabric that makes this legal status of the political. Participatory democracy established by the guidelines of the Federal Constitution requires this perspective when the Supreme Court acting in place of concentrated constitutionality control. In a plural society, there is no reason to get rid of state decision moments popular participation. Lack the Supreme Court, this time, the democratizing perception that the institute brings to the interior of the Court, as state determination of space in which to come together and meet the aspirations of society and state claims. The dissertation investigates thus the possibility of amicus curiae Institute serve as a mediator of the democratic debate, to assist the Supreme Court in the preparation of the decision is, historically, that which is of greater legitimacy, from the perspective of a theory participatory democracy. Analyzes, likewise, the unfolding of abstract judicial review in the context of Brazilian law. Proposes, incidentally, a rereading of the separation of powers, with the call for the Judiciary be careful not to become the protagonist of national political decisions. It maintains, finally, that procedural opening the interpreters of the constitution, through the amicus curiae Institute, shows up as able to decrease the legitimacy deficit in the performance of the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Rodando a bolsinha: dinheiro e relações de prostituição

In this work a series of discussions is made on the relationship between money and prostitution in a way of overcoming its merely economic aspects, in the perception of both being social, cultural and historical phenomena, and taking them as symbols, whose study aids to unveil the reality. In this context it is looked for revealing its forms and contents to make it possible to understand them beyond the rationality, calculability and mathematical elements presents in them; beyond apparentness, taking them in their complexity. The discussions encompass theoretical elements, based especially on Georg Simmel s theoretical analyses, allied to a specific empirical frame that regards the life experience of the women of Praia do Meio, pedaço of the city of Natal-RN-Brazil, where the data were collected from. Fundamentally, prostitution is perceived as an exchange activity, which is not depleted in the economic elements, but, contrarily, starts on them and surpasses them in diverse aspects. It deals about a money-mediated relationship between human beings that possesses in itself a full complexity, which demands an accurate and keen attention to be comprehended. Since money has transformed the world and the men and women in it, the discussions in the text are conducted in a direction to attempt to encircle and understand the relationship between money and prostitution. Prostitution, in turn, aids to understand such a transformation as it is also a symbol of our times and it makes us to face the true essence of our society: the transformation of human beings into merchandise, into negotiable objects. In the money-based society it is possible to picture the phenomenon of double prostitution: negotiation of the human being, through labor, and negotiation of sex, the last being dramatically stigmatized and the former strongly encouraged. This may be demonstrating that the paid sex is, in the money-ruled society, a limit of commercialization, widely accepted provided it is camouflaged and surrounded by an aura of sensuality and legitimacy