The Brazilian Constitution of 1988: a comparative appraisal

Authors

  • Arturo Alvarado El Colegio de México

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/rinc.v5i3.60966

Keywords:

Constitution, Rule of Law, justice, democratic governance, liberal constitutionalism.

Abstract

This article examines the 1988 constitution of The Federative Republic of Brazil and its significance after 30 years of its implementation. Asserts some of its more advance social, political features and evaluates the current challenges to implement a democratic governance, based on a Rule of Law within the evolving constitutional framework. It also makes some comparisons between the Brazilian constitutional and political processes and other Latin American experiences, weighing whether or not Brazil started a new era of constitutional thinking in Latin America.

Author Biography

Arturo Alvarado, El Colegio de México

Professor at the Center for Sociological Studies (Ciudad de México, México). Ph. D. in Social Sciences with major in Sociology at El Colegio de México (Ciudad de México, México). E-mail: alvarado@colmex.mx.

References

ACEMOGLU, Daron; ROBINSON, James; SANTOS, Rafael. The Monopoly of Violence: Evidence from Colombia. National Bureau of Economic Research, Massachusetts, vol. 11, p. 5- 44, Dec. 2009

ACEMOGLU, Daron; TICCHI, David; Vindigni, Andrea. Persistence of Civil Wars. Journal of the European Economic Association, Oxford, vol. 8, p. 664- 676, Apr./May. 2009.

ADORNO, Sergio. Democracy in Progress in Contemporary Brazil: Corruption, Organized Crime, Violence and New Paths to the Rule of Law. International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, Ontario, vol. 2, p. 409-425, Oct. 2013.

AVRITZER, Leonardo; MARONA, Marjorie. Judicialização da política no Brasil: ver além do constitucionalismo liberal para ver melhor. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, Brasília, n.15, p. 69-94, set./dez. 2014.

CÂMARA DOS DEPUTADOS. Constituição da república Federativa do Brasil, 1988. 35. ed. Brasil: Centro de Documentação e Informação, 2012.

COX, Gary; NORTHON, Douglass; WEINGAST, Barry. The Violence Trap: A Political-Economic Approach to the Problems of Development. Available at: <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2370622>.

GARAY, Luis; DE LEÓN, Isaac; SALCEDO-ALBARÁN, Eduardo. Captura y Reconfiguración Cooptada del Estado en Guatemala, Colombia y México. Método, Bogotá, n. 64, p. 3-45, ene. 2010.

GARGARELLA, Roberto. Recientes reformas constitucionales en América Latina: una primera aproximación. Desarrollo Económico, Buenos Aires, vol. 36, n. 144, p. 971- 990, jun./ mar. 2013.

NEGRETO, Gabriel. Shifting Constitutional Designs in Latin America: A Two-Level Explanation. Texas Law Review, Austin, vol. 89, p. 1777- 1779. 2011.

O’DONNELL, Guillermo. Polyarchies and the (Un)Rule of Law in Latin America. The Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Chicago, p. 1- 41, sept. 1998.

RAWLS, John. The law of peoples: with “The idea of public reason revisited”. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2001.

RIBEIRO, Ludmila. The Constitutional Amendment 45 and the access to the justice. Revista Direito GV, São Paulo, vol. 4, n. 2, p. 465-491, jul./ dez. 2008

SUNSTEIN, Cass. Beyond the Republican Revival. The Yale Law Journal, New Haven, vol. 97, p. 1539- 1590, 1988.

UPRIMNY, Rodrigo. The Recent Transformation of Constitutional Law in Latin America: Trends and Challenges. Texas Law Review, Austin, vol. 89. p. 1586- 1609, 2011.

Downloads

Published

2018-09-05

How to Cite

ALVARADO, Arturo. The Brazilian Constitution of 1988: a comparative appraisal. Revista de Investigações Constitucionais, [S. l.], v. 5, n. 3, p. 137–148, 2018. DOI: 10.5380/rinc.v5i3.60966. Disponível em: https://revistas.ufpr.br/rinc/article/view/60966. Acesso em: 25 dec. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 5 No. 3 (2018): September/December - Dossier: "The 30th Anniversary of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution"

Section

Dossier

License

Authors who publish in this Journal agree to the following terms:

  1. Authors retain copyright and grant the Journal of Constitutional Research the right of first publication with the article simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0 International which allows sharing the work with recognition of the authors and its initial publication in this Journal.
  2. Authors are able to take on additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the paper published in this Journal (eg.: publishing in institutional repository or as a book), with a recognition of its initial publication in this Journal.
  3. Authors are allowed and encouraged to publish their work online (eg.: in institutional repositories or on their personal website) at any point before or during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and the citation of the published work (see the Effect of Open Access).