Peripheral Modernity, Constitutional State and Public Sphere: Reframing the Debate Through a Brazilian Dialog with Systems and Discourse Theory.

• Grant number: 10/12853-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: August 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Theory of Law
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo da Costa Pinto Neves
• Grantee: Pedro Henrique Gonçalves de Oliveira Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

How to approach the influence of the organizations and associations of the civil society on the public sphere and on the Brazilian Constitutional State, considering the complexity of functionally differentiated modern society and the debates that points out to transformations on the functioning of contemporary democracy without losing sight of the peculiar characteristics of Brazil's peripheral modernity condition? This study intents to develop this problematic proposing a displacement of the debate about the conceptions of civil society, public sphere and Constitutional State by means of a dialog between systems and discourse theories (Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas, respectively) applied to Brazilian context (following Marcelo Neves concept of the public sphere as an arena oriented to influence constitutional procedures; functioning as a locus of intermediation between dissent of contents and procedural consensus). On a contemporary context of discussion about new forms of political representation that appear to be gaining highlight in post- 80s democratic theory, and at a moment when theories of highly normative conceptions of civil society faces "descriptive" and "normative" impasses, the necessity of reframing the debate seems to be apparent in specialized literature. A theoretical proposition that aims to recast the terms of this debate might offer some prosperous analytical tools both to help the understanding this phenomenon; and to glimpse some new possibilities of institutional and legislative reforms. The aim of this study is to contribute to this path.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

RIBEIRO, Pedro Henrique Gonçalves de Oliveira. Amongst sluices and mirrors: the public sphere in a critical Reading of Niklas Luhmann and contemporary debates. 2012. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Direito (FD/SBD) São Paulo.