History and Colonialism in Latin American Constitutionalism and Brazil

Abstract

The main objective of this discussion is to examine the sociopolitical trajectory of the theory of constitutionalism developed from the 19th century onwards, in the context of the formation of the nation states of Latin America. The aim is to understand how the process of transplantation and adaptation of its sources, originating from the tradition of North-Eurocentric liberal-enlightenment modernity, took place. The essential problem lies in the paradoxical evolution and latent disparity between the imported republican ideology, full of abstract and idealized theoretical concepts, and the complex realities of local societies, marked by their cultural specificities, intrinsic differences and deeply rooted historical contradictions. The incorporations of the classical liberal matrix, appropriated in a contradictory way to legitimize and perpetuate the exclusive interests of local elites, are present in Brazilian constitutionalism. Thus, through the critical-decolonial methodological framework, the aim is to highlight the multifaceted dissonances that emerged throughout this national historical process, characterized as liberal-conservative.