Origins of the debate on the social component in brazilian democracy: the controversy between Rui Barbosa and Oliveira Vianna

Abstract

Origins of the debate on the social component in brazilian democracy: the controversy between Rui Barbosa and Oliveira Vianna This article deals with the controversy between Rui Barbosa and Oliveira Vianna, which lays on the basis of the debate about the social dimension of democracy in Brazilian political thinking. It anticipates the substitution of the liberal regime – sustained by Rui Barbosa – by a corporative one – advocated by Oliveira Vianna. These thinkers appear as representative of the different opinions harbored within the society about this question, creating a political culture that still nowadays establishes the terms of the debate. The individualist view of Barbosa proposes a political regime based on the classical elective mechanism of representative democracy. Vianna’s intellectual effort constitutes an alternate model, rooted in “social reality”, which historically contributed to the instauration of a centralized corporative state. We conclude by standing up for the necessity of a synthesis between both dimensions: the liberal one that defends the civil and political liberties, and the “corporative” tradition that supports the deepening of social rights.