A organização do processo legislativo na Assembléia Legislativa do Rio Grande do Norte

This work evaluates the organization of the legislative activities and the decision-making process within the Legislative Assembly of RN, emphasizing the role of ruling institutions on the Legislative Power working, as well as the structure of its decisions. The organization and the production of the decision-making process inside the Legislative Assembly will be seen along with how institutional norms determine the nature of the legislative process and influence his legal production. The period under study extends from 1990/94 to 1994/97 legislatures. The work is divided in three parts. The first analyzes the legislative process, the role of legal production, the nature of the legislation produced during the time referred and the role of the decisory instances: the directive Table, the leaders collegiate and the permanent commissions; the second part will present the results of questionnaires made to the deputies about their perspective concerning the actual power structure, as well as a more desirable power distribution among different decisory instances in the Assembly. At last, part three will focus on the Executive power role exerted on the legislative process, analyzing how it makes use of his initiating and veto prerogatives, via the study of some laws sanctioned in 1990-1997

Tribunal do Júri e Soberania Popular

The present work has for object the Jury under the democratic optics, looking for to demonstrate its democratic validation. The purpose of this work was to revisit the institution, in order to bring its importance while instrument of popular participation. The work presents, first, a systematic and chronological approach of the institution of the Jury and its evolution inside of Brazilian constitutional history, objectifying, with this, to approach the narrow entailing of the Jury with the constitutional postulates. After that, the constitutional principles of the Jury had been examined, looking for to establish the popular identity of the institution and its approach with the human rights system of the Brazilian Federal Constitution. More ahead, had been examined the direct participation of the society in the Jury, going deep the questions related with the election of the jurors and the jury nullification on the American Jury. Finally, had been dedicated the study of the current conjuncture of the Brazilian Jury, its problems and the possible solutions, beyond the study of the limitation's mechanisms in the constitutional principle of the popular supremacy and the reform's projects suggested for legislators and jurists. In this way, had been looked elaborate a constitutional construction of the Jury, defending its permanence in the Brasil law system, for being a fundamental guarantee to protect the freedom, moreover for being essential to validate the Democratic State of Right, for to be the materialization of the democratic principle. For opportune, it's necessary to allege that this work had been directed to the constitutional analysis of the Jury, its legitimacy and its democratic vocation, using themselves as ideological north the American Jury System and as philosophical base the social contract theory, understanding the Jury as an instrument of protection of the society front to the state supremacy and its hierarchy structure of the power

Democracia brasileira: fortalecimento da participação popular

A democracia tem representado ao longo da História o mais perfeito mecanismo político de convivência social, encontrando na soberania popular seu fundamento e legitimidade. De berço grego, instituiu-se sob princípios que radicavam o poder político no povo, exercido diretamente na ágora ateniense. O iluminismo dos séculos XVII e XVIII reacendeu o ideal democrático, encontrando no positivismo sua base teórica. O poder passou a ser exercido por via de representantes eleitos periodicamente. O locus da atividade política era o parlamento, ambiente fechado e refratário à participação popular, cingida, à época, ao voto do cidadão nos períodos eleitorais. O distanciamento entre governantes e governados gerou déficit de legitimidade no modelo liberal clássico, levando o constitucionalismo do século XX a abandonar o rigor formal positivista, para adotar uma nova hermenêutica, de base axiológica e centrada na participação direta do povo nas instâncias do poder. A Constituição Federal de 1988 compendiou a democracia participativa em seu texto, declarando no parágrafo único, de seu artigo 1º, que todo o poder emana do povo. Consagrou como base da soberania popular o sufrágio universal, o voto direto, secreto e de igual valor, além do plebiscito, do referendo e da iniciativa popular de leis. Garantiu ainda a ação popular como ferramenta de cidadania. A participação popular foi restringida com o advento da Lei nº 9.907/98, que impôs bloqueios processuais para seu exercício, gerando déficit de legitimidade no sistema representativo brasileiro. O propósito desse trabalho é demonstrar a necessidade de se estabelecer um novo espaço público na ordem constitucional do Brasil, de textura aberta e dialógica e de perspectiva emancipatória, que customize a participação do povo nas instâncias do poder, a partir da desburocratização dos instrumentos de soberania popular já existentes e da adoção de outros institutos democráticos semidireto, notadamente a iniciativa popular de emenda à Constituição, a revogação de mandato eletivo e o veto popular