| Subject: "Democracy Law and Violence: Disjunctions of Brazilian Citizenship" Holston and Caldiera |
Author:
Jennifer Lee
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Date Posted: 09:25:22 05/17/02 Fri
In reply to:
Dylan
's message, "Articles" on 08:11:53 05/11/02 Sat
The first objective of this article is to emphasize that there is a civil component that is an essential and often overlooked part of democracy. The authors define civil not as a separation between state and non-state, but as a sphere of rights, practices, and values that concern liberty and justices as the means to all other rights.
Although Latin America has seen political democratic change, it hasn’t necessarily had the social and cultural changes that must coincide. For example, Brazil has succeeded in institutionalizing democratic politics via free and fair elections, but it also experiences the delegitimation of many institutions of law.
The first delegitimizing factor is violence and its adverse effect on democracy. Along with Brazil’s increasing criminal violence, it has exceptionally high and rising police violence. Although police have been exposed and recorded using heavy violent force such as murder and torture, they have broad public support. General fear of violent crime by all classes and a mistrust of the judicial system create the support for police violence and encourage them to take justice into their own hands.
Some key examples of heavy police violence or unusual military force are: Esquadrao da Morte (civil police death squad of 1970s), Casa de Detencao Massacre, Operacao Rio (called in Army into Rio de Janeiro to control violent criminality), and police raiding of shantytowns.
Police violence is heavily biased towards the poor and blacks. Even critique of the police shows this bias, being that police are not prepared for their jobs because they come from the lower classes and consequently lack the requisite education and good judgment.
Another civil democratic shortcoming is Brazil’s justice system, which is isolated and also biased against the poor and blacks. The justice system has a history of not defending civil rights and only rarely protected some property rights. Consequently, there is privatization of justice via vigilantes, hired guardsmen, and segregation of public spaces.
Finally, the authors describe what they call a disjunctive democracy, in that democracies are usually imbalanced. Citizenship rights often expand in one area while decreasing in another. The authors stress the requirement of democratic rule of law and that it needs a strong civil component to maintain justice. Finally, extension of democracy into social sphere is as central and important as its extension into the political sphere.
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