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Democracy in Contemporaneity: Building Identity

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UN Interventions and Democratization

Part of the book series: Societies and Political Orders in Transition ((SOCPOT))

Abstract

The first chapter addresses a wide range of issues involving democracy in contemporary times and the construction of identities from its theoretical dimension. The chapter explores the concept of democracy from a perspective of building semantic meanings to allow for a better understanding the rules of the democratic game. In its evolution, democracy, conceived to resist time, conflict and crisis, started, to also invest in the popular autonomy, representing, therefore, a cooperative democracy, since it has an end and a means at the same time. It has an end because it has the purpose of aggregating several recipients and accommodating the fundamentals of an equal and participatory society; and a means because it will require several interpreters and mechanisms for its realization and development.

Democracy has evolved, over the centuries, expanding its nuclei of adherence. Democratic living is intimately related to the foundations, choices, structures that hold authority and the mechanisms in which these choices can take effect. If the original aim was to decentralize power, democracy also finds scope for the promotion of human rights and justice, which includes the superiority of the charter, the existence of fundamental rights and their social development, and the cooperation of the formal structures of power. This conceptual evolution allowed us to find materialization, including through external inputs, such as the UN.

As an open system, democracy is unlimited and constructive, not having a single source of interpretation. Its essentiality lies in the cyclical attribute of conforming dissent—being in transformation is its natural and dynamic state.

In this new field created by the UN, it is fundamental that the attributes that involve democracy and democratization are present in the process of forming a new constitutional charter, since they will enable a more participative environment, serving the constitution as a means for its realization.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    DEMOCRACY in: (2009).

  2. 2.

    Benjamin Constant (1985).

  3. 3.

    J.J. Canotilho (2003).

  4. 4.

    Benjamin Constant (1985).

  5. 5.

    Robert A. Dahl (2001a, 2001b).

  6. 6.

    Vicki Jackson (2006).

  7. 7.

    Vicki Jackson (2010).

  8. 8.

    Bernardo Fernandes Gonçalves (2011).

  9. 9.

    Democracy for the United Nations is a universal ideal and is one of the fundamental values that make up the organization.

  10. 10.

    Bernardo Fernandes Gonçalves (2011).

  11. 11.

    Fábio Konder Comparato (1989).

  12. 12.

    Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1996).

  13. 13.

    Peter Harris, Ben Reilly, Daniel Zovatto (2001).

  14. 14.

    Amartya Sen (1999).

  15. 15.

    DEMOCRACY in: (2009).

  16. 16.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  17. 17.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  18. 18.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  19. 19.

    Norberto Bobbio (2008).

  20. 20.

    James A. Gardner (2005).

  21. 21.

    Samuel P. Huntington (1984).

  22. 22.

    Samuel P. Huntington (1984).

  23. 23.

    Samuel P. Huntington (2014).

  24. 24.

    Freedom House’s is an independent surveillance organization dedicated to expanding the world's freedom. Founded in 1941, it was the first American organization to defend the advancement of freedom in the world against major threats to democracy and the defense of citizens to exercise their fundamental rights. http://www.freedomhouse.org.

  25. 25.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  26. 26.

    Robert A. Dahl (2001a, 2001b).

  27. 27.

    The Constitution of East Timor, for example, States in its Article 11 the valorization of resistance as a recognition against foreign domination and the contribution of all who fought for national independence.

  28. 28.

    Gabriel Méndez Hincapie, Ricardo Sanín Restrepo (2012).

  29. 29.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  30. 30.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  31. 31.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  32. 32.

    Leonard T. Hobhouse (1964).

  33. 33.

    John Locke (2010).

  34. 34.

    Brian Z. Tamanaha (2008).

  35. 35.

    J.J. Canotilho (2003).

  36. 36.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  37. 37.

    DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (1998).

  38. 38.

    DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (1998).

  39. 39.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  40. 40.

    DEMOCRACY AND LIBERALISM (1998).

  41. 41.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  42. 42.

    Paulo Bonavides (2009).

  43. 43.

    Paulo Bonavides (2009).

  44. 44.

    DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (1998).

  45. 45.

    Carina Barbosa Gouvêa (2015).

  46. 46.

    Rogério Gesta Leal (2000).

  47. 47.

    Vicente de Paulo Barretto (2010).

  48. 48.

    DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (1998).

  49. 49.

    DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM (1998).

  50. 50.

    FORMAL MEANING OF DEMOCRACY (1998).

  51. 51.

    FORMAL MEANING OF DEMOCRACY (1998).

  52. 52.

    For Sellers, it was the study of the ancient republican tradition that brought contemporary theories to constitutional government. And in this conception, he assured that for the advance of any science it is necessary to understand the reason and the reality that it affects. First one thinks of the purpose of government - justice and common good; then in the method - laws; then on the technique to ensure success - control and balance conceived on the constitutional architecture. (Mortimer N.S. Sellers, Niccolò Machiavelli (2015).

  53. 53.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  54. 54.

    SOME TYPOLOGIES OF DEMOCRATIC REGIMES (1998).

  55. 55.

    Paulo Bonavides (2009).

  56. 56.

    SOME TYPOLOGIES OF DEMOCRATIC REGIMES (1998).

  57. 57.

    Paulo Bonavides (2009).

  58. 58.

    Alexis de Tocqueville (2000).

  59. 59.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  60. 60.

    J.J. Gomes Canotilho (2003).

  61. 61.

    Gabriel Méndez Hicapíe, Ricardo Sanín Restrepo (2012).

  62. 62.

    Bernarb Manin (1995).

  63. 63.

    J.J. Canotilho Gomes (2003).

  64. 64.

    James Madison (1998).

  65. 65.

    James Madison (1998).

  66. 66.

    J.J. Canotilho Gomes (2003).

  67. 67.

    Bernarb Manin (1995).

  68. 68.

    Jacques Rancière (1996).

  69. 69.

    Gabriel Méndez Hincapie, Ricardo Sanín Restrepo (2012).

  70. 70.

    Gabriel Méndez Hincapie, Ricardo Sanín Restrepo (2012).

  71. 71.

    Jacques Rancière (2001).

  72. 72.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  73. 73.

    Carina B. Gouvêa, Alfredo Canellas G. da Silva (2014).

  74. 74.

    Rogério Bento do Nascimento (2012).

  75. 75.

    Rogério Bento do Nascimento (2012).

  76. 76.

    José Adércio Leite Sampaio (2010).

  77. 77.

    Boaventura Souza Santos (2010).

  78. 78.

    Rogério Gesta Leal (2009).

  79. 79.

    John Rawls (2002).

  80. 80.

    Damiano Palano (2015).

  81. 81.

    Damiano Palano (2015).

  82. 82.

    Robert A. Dahl (2001a, 2001b).

  83. 83.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  84. 84.

    Norberto Bobbio (2000).

  85. 85.

    Samuel P. Huntington (1984).

  86. 86.

    Simone Goyard-Fabre (2003).

  87. 87.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  88. 88.

    Fábio Comparato et al. (1985).

  89. 89.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  90. 90.

    Friedrich Müller (2011).

  91. 91.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  92. 92.

    Norberto Bobbio (1986).

  93. 93.

    Friedrich Müller (2011).

  94. 94.

    The way constitutional democracy was conceived, whether in classical and legal constitutionalism, ends up providing its meaning as a “higher law” maintained by the Constitutional Courts. (Richard Bellamy 2006a, 2006b). What invites us to reflect on the remembrance of democratic processes.

  95. 95.

    Richard Bellamy (2006a, 2006b).

  96. 96.

    Boaventura Souza Santos (2002).

  97. 97.

    Vanice Regina Lírio do Valle (2013).

  98. 98.

    Roberto Gargarella (2011).

  99. 99.

    Vanice Regina Lírio do Valle (2013).

  100. 100.

    Lucas Arrimada (2011).

  101. 101.

    Jacques Rancière (1996).

  102. 102.

    Vanice Regina Lírio Valle (2011).

  103. 103.

    Vanice Regina Lírio Valle (2011).

  104. 104.

    Roberto Gargarella (2015).

  105. 105.

    Roberto Gargarella (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Carina Barbosa Gouvêa

  2. State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

    Pedro H. Villas Bôas Castelo Branco

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  1. Carina Barbosa Gouvêa
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Correspondence to Carina Barbosa Gouvêa .

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Gouvêa, C.B., Castelo Branco, P.H.V.B. (2023). Democracy in Contemporaneity: Building Identity. In: UN Interventions and Democratization. Societies and Political Orders in Transition. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32715-5_2

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