Politics, press and military participation in the abdication of d. Pedro I

This work seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the Abdication, analyzing how and why sections of the army joined the liberal groups against the emperor, focusing on the period that immediately preceded this event. The argument is that the alliance between sections of the army and the liberal groups in 1831 was possible because the expansion of the "public space" in the city of Rio de Janeiro, a process in which newspapers such as "O Republico" played a key role as they became a privileged locus for political disputes. The article shows that that newspaper helped to build a political identity based on the defense of Brazilian interests against Portuguese despotism, giving momentum to internal conflicts around this subject that were already taking place among sections of the army and hence triggering the process that would lead to the Abdication.

Para onde caminha a ciência politica?

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges to Political Sciences at the moment when many authors emphasize the usage of democratic paradigm as the only way to the rational building of speech in pluralist societies. At the end of one century of the consolidation of modern liberal thought, both in right and left versions (Wallerstein, 1995), the democracy as research tradition(Ball, 1987) fades away its ethical meaning, based upon equality and freedom, and lacks room for discussions about rules for implementing it. The analytical method seeks to historically rebuild the different levels of modern state-nation upbringing and the consolidation of competitive party democracy in the 20th century, which is the explanation key for the political organizational phenomenon of globalized societies. The result of this analysis opens new perspectives to Political Sciences advance in discussing the nature of democratic paradigm since it needs to face challenges to survive, such as: the fight against the structural violence of our society; the fight against despotism; and the adjustment to the meaning of the word freedom. The facing of the mentioned challenges may open explanation keys that will lead to a change in Political Sciences ways.

Outros olhares de Eros: sobre a ficção homoerótica portuguesa contemporânea

From the reading of contemporary Portuguese fiction, after the Carnation’s Revoluction, in 1974, we can observe an opening in the literary and academic ambiences to the treatment of themes, silenced before for the New State despotism. Considering the postmoderns proposals of reviewing the canon, we mark the necessity of a homoerotism inclusion as one of the most fundamental theme for the comprehension of the actual literary production in Portugal.