Democracia Possível: espaços institucionais, participação social e cultura política

The present study aims at making a theoretically reflection about the reconstruction process of democracy that can be observed in the country since the opening political process, which took place with the Geisel´s government in 1974, passing through the first civil president, in 1985, the Constitution process, in 1986, and finally the Constitution promulgation in 1988. It interests to this study analyses the premise that the 1988 Constitution inaugurates the moment in which democracy starts to be reconstructed in the country, and that this reconstruction is made in such a brand new way, once it included the possibility of participation of the civil society in the deliberation of the public politics, what became possible with the creation of new spaces of a gestion shared by the three executive powers: federal; states; municipalities, and with the civil society, in the councils created in those spheres. In this way, this work wishes to focus the opening process to the civil society participation, wich became possible with the creation of the city councils of public politics. It´s about investigating the form in wich the relations set up in these hibrid spaces could be considered democratic, inclusive and promoters of effective participation, checking up tendencies, giving emphasis to regularities and some specifities encountered in the forms of participation, which have been observed in those councils. In order to comprehend the democratic process in construction in the country, the analysis of the relations established by the civil society and the local executive power in the obligatory municipal councils is taken as object of study, passing by the tensions wich evolves institutions and political practices, permeated by the local political culture. It starts from a briefly review of works already made on the subject

A relação histórica entre democracia e liberalismo. Um diálogo crítico com Norberto Bobbio.

This work seeks to examine the historical relationships established between liberalism and democracy, questioning the apparent inseparability between the two ideologies. Methodologically construct a hypothetical dialogue with the Italian thinker Norberto Bobbio, one of the most important systematizers of liberal democracy, defending a theoretical and conceptual complementarity between the two ideologies. Following the Bobbio theoretical propose, it presents the political contributions of classical liberalism that the Italian thinker identify as logical and axiological antecedent of the modern democracy, naturalizing and universalizing the principles and ideals of classical liberalism. Going counter, it problematizes the political contributions of classical liberalism, emphasizing the tension between liberal theory and its practice, between the declared political principles and their translation into concrete historical reality, reserving rights and freedoms to property minority and severe restrictions to the majority. The critical analysis of classical liberalism allows questioning the privilege position that Bobbio reserves to the liberalism in the democracy history, to restore the important contribution of illiberal politics currents in the civil, political and social rights history, advocating the democracy with its social character, inclusive and participatory

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

Iniciativa popular na concretização do direito fundamental à democracia

The Participatory Democracy is disseminated throughout the Principle of Popular Sovereignty. Since it spurs the participation of the people in the exercise of political power, it emerges as a conciliatory alternative to the Representative Regime - one of questionable legitimacy in account of the distortion it causes on the will of the public. It does so specially vis-à-vis the legislative, where the law is created. It s known that our Constitution (arts. 1º e 14, CF/88) provides for the means through which the members of the public may take part in the political process of the country, for it consecrates the plebiscite, the referendum and the popular initiative, all of them incipiently regulated by the Lei nº 9.709/98. It s our task, thus, to inquire, through deductive reasoning as well as the legal exegeses, the enforceability of the Popular Initiative as a means of popular emancipation, given that it enables the citizens to conscientiously participate in the public sphere. It has also an educational ethos which builds the capacity of individual to act, and, therefore, through thoughtful choices, enhance the legal system. Furthermore, the Lei da Ficha Limpa (LC nº 135/2010) surely represents a milestone in the Brazilian political history, since it accrued from a new way of social interaction allowed by the usage of communication technology on the pursuit of political morality. As a matter of fact, this bill is a clear example of how a legal act was legitimately proposed through Public Initiative. Hence, it s beneficial to actually make use of the Public Initiative, under the influence of the New Constitutional Hermeneutics, with a view to supporting social claims and promoting a dialogical relationship with the State in order to help it in the decisionmaking process. Thereat, we can achieve important civic spaces through which the fundamental right to democracy shall be materialized, tearing apart the old paradigms of inequality and, thus, promoting social justice

Democracia participativa e regulação econômica: uma questão de legitimidade

This work presents an analysis about the legitimation of independent regulatory commission`s rulemaking power by participation procedure. It is observed that political and administrative decentralization and fragmentation of State, with the purpose of approaching citizens and provide, more efficiently, the functions acquired by the passage of the Welfare State, leads to a deficit of legitimacy (democratic crisis), which is noticeable in the making of legal norms by directors of independent regulatory commission to regulate specific economic sector. However, we understand that this crisis stems from the observation of the contemporary world from dogmas and legal institutions of the eighteenth century, without their evolution and adaptation to the modern world. The legitimacy must be perceived as the justification of power, relation command /obedience, which, from the Modern State, has the democracy as standard. Therefore, just as the world has evolved and demanded political and administrative decentralization to accompany him, it is necessary to the development of the idea of representative democracy (formal legitimacy) to participatory democracy (legitimacy stuff). Legitimacy is not confused with the legality: as the legality is on observance to internal legal system, the "rules of play"; legitimacy, as inputs to be fed into this system, the selection of the different expectations in the environment. Nevertheless, the legitimacy will take place by legality, through introduction of rational and communicative procedures: procedures get fundamental importance because these will be the means to select the expectations to be introduced in the legal system in order to make decisions more fair, rational and qualified towards society. Thus, it is necessary to its opening to the environment for dialogue with the government. In this context, we try to make an analysis of constitutional norms based on systematic and teleological interpretation of these norms to build these arguments. According to the Constitution of 1988, participatory democracy is a result of the democratic principle (sole paragraph of art. 1 of the Constitution), and it is an expression of citizenship and political pluralism, both foundations of Republic (respectively Art. 1st, inc . V and II of the Constitution), as well as the national consciousness. From another point of view, that principle consists of an evolution in the management public affairs (principle of Republic). The right of interested participate in the rulemaking process derives both the principle of popular participation (part of the democratic principle) and the republican principle as the due process constitutional (art. 5, LIV and LV, CF/88) and the right to petition (Art . 5 °, inc. XXXIV, "a", CF/88), and it is the duty of the State not only be open to participation and encourage it. Ignoring stakeholder involvement in procedures and / or expressions compiled can be causes of invalidation of the rule of law produced by addiction of procedure, motive, motivation and/or because of the administrative act. Finally, we conclude that the involvement of stakeholders in the process of making rules within the independent regulatory commission is the legitimacy and the validity of rules; and that, despite of the expressions do not bind the decision making, they will enter the system as juridical fact, balancing the field of technical discretionary of agencies

Federalismo e democracia no Brasil: a visão da ciência política norte-americana

O artigo examina as interpretações da ciência política norte-americana sobre a natureza do federalismo brasileiro, tomando como base as orientações teórico-metodológicas da análise comparada sobre federalismo.

Tocqueville, Sarmiento e Alberdi: três visões sobre a democracia nas Américas

Analisaremos comparativamente três importantes ideólogos liberais do século XIX, Tocqueville, Sarmiento e Alberdi, que situados em diferentes continentes discutiram o significado da democracia nos marcos da ordem liberal. Explicaremos os argumentos e conceitos desenvolvidos em algumas de suas obras mais importantes, em articulação às posições políticas e ideológicas por eles sustentados nos contextos específicos em que atuaram.

Radical scavenging activity of orange and tangerine varieties cultivated in Brazil

Four citrus fruit varieties cultivated in Brazil (two kinds of sweet orange and two kinds of tangerine) were analyzed for physicochemical characteristics contents of total phenolics, total carotenoids and ascorbic acid, and antioxidant activities. The antioxidant activities of aqueous, methanolic, and acetone extracts of the citrus fruit juices were assessed on the basis of their ability to scavenge 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH(center dot)). The cravo tangerine has the highest content of citric acid, while the pera orange is richest in ascorbic acid. The lima orange has the highest total phenolic contents, and the ponkan the highest total carotenoids. The antioxidant activities, expressed as the concentration of antioxidant able to scavenge 50% of the initial DPPH(center dot) (EC(50)), ranged from 139.1+/-27.3 to 182.2+/-28.8 g extract/l for juice of orange varieties and 186.3+/-29.6 to 275.5+/-3.3g extract/l for juice of tangerine citrus varieties. In methanolic extracts the EC(50) ranged from 192.5+/-43.1 to 267.4+/-41.4 g extract/l for orange varieties and from 225.2+/-69.8 to 336.3+/-27.2 g extract/l for tangerine varieties. For EC(50) values of acetone fractions, there were no statistically significant differences between the different varieties. For every citrus fruit in the present study, the radical scavenging capacity was higher in the aqueous than in the methanolic or acetone fractions.

Free radical scavenging profile and myeloperoxidase inhibition of extracts from antidiabetic plants: Bauhinia forficata and Cissus sicyoides

There is abundant evidence that reactive oxygen species are implicated in several physiological and pathological processes. To protect biological targets from oxidative damage. antioxidants must react with radicals and other reactive species faster than biological substrates do. The aim of the present study was to determine the in vitro antioxidant activity of aqueous extracts from leaves of Bauhinia forficata Link (Fabaceae - Caesalpinioideae) and Cissus sicyoides L. (Vitaceae) (two medicinal plants used popularly in the control of diabetes mellitus), using several different assay systems, namely, 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) decolorization. superoxide anion radical (O-2 center dot-) scavenging and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity. In the ABTS assay for total antioxidant activity, B. forficata showed IC50 8.00 +/- 0.07 mu g/mL, while C. sicyoides showed IC50 13.0 +/- 0.2 mu g/mL. However, the extract of C. sicyoides had a stronger effect on O-2 center dot- (IC50 60.0 +/- 2.3 mu p/mL) than the extract of B. forficata (IC50 90.0 +/- 4.4 mu g/mL). B. forficata also had a stronger inhibitory effect on MPO activity, as measured by guaiacol oxidation, than C. sicyoides. These results indicate that aqueous extracts of leaves of B. forficata and C. sicyoides are a potential source of natural antioxidants and may be helpful in the prevention of diabetic complications associated with oxidative stress.

The effect of pH on horseradish peroxidase-catalyzed oxidation of melatonin: production of N-1-acetyl-N-2-formyl-5-methoxykynuramine versus radical-mediated degradation

There is a g-rowing body of evidence that melatonin and its oxidation product, N-1-acetyl-N-2-formyl-5-methoxykynuramine (AFMK), have anti-inflammatory properties. From a nutritional point of view, the discovery of melatonin in plant tissues emphasizes the importance of its relationship with plant peroxidases. Here we found that the pH of the reaction mixture has a profound influence in the reaction rate and products distribution when melatonin is oxidized by the plant enzyme horseradish peroxidase. At pH 5.5. 1 mm of melatonin was almost completely oxidized within 2 min, whereas only about 3% was consumed at pH 7.4. However, the relative yield of AFMK was higher in physiological pH. Radical-mediated oxidation products, including 2-hydroxymelatonin a dimer of, 2-hydroxymelatonin and O-demethylated dimer of melatonin account for the fast consumption of melatonin at pH 5.5. The higher production of AFMK at pH 7.4 was explained by the involvement of compound III of peroxidases as evidenced by spectral studies. on the other hand, the fast oxidative degradation at pH 5.5 was explained by the classic peroxidase cycle.

Nietzsche e a modernidade: da crítica à metafísica à crítica à democracia

This dissertation presents an interpretation concerning the critical considerations of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on Modernity, especially Nietzsche s criticism of Modernity, of Christian mores and democracy produced by him in Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche attentively analyses details of Modernity, produces a diagnosis of modern man and discovers the sign of decay. We consider that Nietzsche s criticism of modernity is directly linked to the criticism of classic metaphysics. We emphasize questions like: what in us aspires to truth? Christian mores: why and what for? What characterizes modernity? Could it be the appeal to the democratic taste? Is it possible to reinvent Modernity? We stress the relation between the notion of truth, democracy and Christian mores, showing that these mores were also inherited from the Socratic culture. We also intend to clarify Nietzsche s proposal of a new way of doing philosophy, that would be able to surpass the decay which rules in European modern culture. The end of this research points out to the ―philosophers of the future‖ who are able, according to Nietzsche, to claim life beyond the metaphysics opposition, beyond the good and the evil

Frente Popular, Modernização e Revolução Passiva no Chile

Discute-se, neste texto, o significado dos 14 anos de governos Radicais que se seguiram à vitória da Frente Popular em 1938. Neste período, o Chile conseguiu combinar crescimento econômico e democracia representativa, alcançando um grau nada desprezível de modernização. Ruptura e continuidade compõem o par indissolúvel do percurso modernizador vivido a partir da Frente Popular, quando se instituiu um novo nexo entre economia, política e relações sociais. O período é caracterizado como uma modalidade específica de revolução passiva, responsável pela atualização da ordem capitalista no país.

Negociações comerciais internacionais e democracia: o contencioso Brasil x EUA das patentes farmacêuticas na OMC

Dans cet article, on cherche la viabilité analytique du Jeu à Deux Niveaux - JDN pour examiner la situation brésilienne dans l'Organisation Mondiale du Commerce - OMC. on cherche à voir, en même temps, si le perfectionnement des institutions démocratiques brésiliennes en ce qui concerne le processus de formulation de la politique extérieure sera capable d'améliorer la réponse aux demandes des groupes d'intérêt et d'élargir la compétence technique de la diplomatie brésilienne dans les négociations commerciales internationales. on cherche aussi à savoir si ce perfectionnement peut faire monter la crédibilité et la légitimité internationale des démarches brésiliennes au sein de l'OMC, dans le sens de tourner en leur faveur les régimes internationaux. Pour cela, on analyse le contentieux des brevets pharmaceutiques mené contre les États-Unis au sein de l'OMC.

Surgical treatment of renal cell carcinoma recurrence at the renal fossa following radical nephrectomy

CONTEXTO: A recorrência local única do carcinoma renal de células claras em seu leito renal após nefrectomia radical é um evento raro. Estima-se que essa situação ocorra em 0,8% a 3,6% do total de procedimentos. Comumente, seu diagnóstico é realizado através de tomografia computadorizada de abdômen ou ultra-som renal usados no acompanhamento desses pacientes. É polêmico qual o melhor tratamento dessa rara condição entre urologistas e oncologistas devido aos poucos relatos em literatura. RELATO DE CASO: Relatamos um caso de recidiva neoplásica única no leito renal após quatro anos e meio da nefrectomia radical por adenocarcinoma de células claras, sem evidência de metástases a distância em outros órgãos. O diagnóstico foi realizado por meio de tomografia abdominal em acompanhamento ambulatorial, observando-se massa retroperitoneal em topografia renal. A massa foi retirada por meio de uma incisão subcostal ampliada, em cirurgia sem intercorrências. O paciente evoluiu bem no pós-operatório. Após um ano e meio do procedimento, foi evidenciada uma metástase no pulmão esquerdo, e seis meses após, outra recorrência metastática na nona costela anterior à direita, mesmo com paciente totalmente assintomático. O tratamento cirúrgico agressivo em recorrência local única é um bom método para controlar essa rara doença. Tomografia computadorizada de abdômen deve ser feita em acompanhamento de carcinoma renal por longos períodos após a nefrectomia radical para o diagnóstico de recorrências tardias e o tratamento deve ser feito como o de uma metástase recorrente única.