Este artigo estuda a judicialização da política no Brasil com base na análise de um banco de dados composto por 3.648 Adins, ajuizadas entre 1988 e 2005. A percepção mais geral que se impõe é a de que as Adins já fazem parte do cotidiano da moderna democracia brasileira, afirmando, ao longo de quase duas décadas, em sucessivos e diferentes governos, a sua presença institucional, e mais fortemente ainda no atual governo Lula, em que funciona como escoadouro dos conflitos entre sociedade e Estado, e dos que surgem no interior da própria administração pública e da federação. Assim, além de ser instrumento da defesa de minorias, sua origem constitucional clássica, a pesquisa revela que a Adin também é recurso institucional estratégico de governo, instituindo, na prática, o Supremo Tribunal Federal como um Conselho de Estado do tipo prevalecente em países de configuração unitária.

This article studies the judicialization of politics in Brazil, based on an analysis of a database containing 3.648 ADINs filed between 1988 and 2005. Examining this data, the overall impression gained is that ADINs are now a normal part of the everyday running of the modern Brazilian democracy, their institutional presence consolidated over almost two decades through successive and different governments - and even more firmly in the current Lula government. Over this time, they have functioned as a channel for the conflicts between society and the State, as well as conflicts within the Public Administration and the Federation. Hence, as well as being an instrument for the defence of minorities, their original constitutional function, the research shows that the ADINs are also a strategic institutional resource for government, turning the Federal Supreme Court in practice into a kind of Council of State prevalent in countries with unitary governments.

This article presents case studies of class action suits in the areas of consumer rights, childhood, the environment, health, and work. The study is based on process analysis and interviews with the respective parties to the suits. The results provide a better understanding of the dynamics of new areas of conflict and the affirmation of collective rights through interaction between civil society and legal institutions like the Office of the Public Defender, Office of the Public Prosecutor, and Judiciary Branch as a whole.

Dans cet article, on trouve l'étude de cinq études de cas d'actions civiles publiques qui traitent des droits collectifs et diffus dans les domaines de la consommation, de l'enfance, de l'environnement, de la santé et du travail. L'étude se fonde sur l'analyse de dossiers et d'entretiens avec les parties concernées directement et indirectement dans chaque cas. Les résultats obtenus dans la recherche permettent de mieux comprendre la dynamique des nouveaux théâtres de conflit et d'affirmation des droits qui se construisent à partir de l'interaction entre la société civile et les institutions du Droit, comme les Avocats Généraux, le Ministère Public et le Pouvoir Judiciaire.

Because the social science narrative has been extremely important in efforts to account for the process of Brazilian modernization, the study of social scientists themselves has become strategic to understanding Brazilian society’s representation of self. This article examines graduate work in the social sciences, graduate students themselves, and their theses and dissertations. Research has been based on a survey conducted among candidates for master’s degrees and doctorates, as well as on an analysis of doctoral dissertations defended between 1990 and 1997. The study reveals a discipline that is undergoing transformation a product of the process of democratization which its members has undergone and of the internalization of new parameters guiding cognitive production. While this may have implied a loss in the field’s capacity to generalize, it has gained in capillarity, in plurality, and in capacity to understand. This study also pinpoints the limits of the discipline, determined by an institutional situation where greater exchange with the members of society is still missing.

Le style des écrits en sciences sociales ayant une grande importance pour expliquer le processus de modernisation au Brésil, l’étude sur les chercheurs dans ce domaine devient une tâche déterminante dans la compréhension de la représentation sur elle-même que la société brésilienne s’est construit. Dans cet article on examine les cours de pós-graduação en Sciences Sociales, leurs étudiants et leurs thèses. La recherche a considéré, d’un côté, un survey effectué auprès des étudiants en DEA et en doctorat, et, de l’autre, les thèses de doctorat soutenues entre 1990 et 1997. Les résultats révèlent un domaine de connaissances en transformation, résultant du processus de démocratisation de ses effectifs et d’assimilation de nouveaux paramètres vers la production cognitive; si celle-ci est en train de perdre sa capacité de généralisation, par ailleurs elle gagne en finesse d’analyse, en diversité et en aptitude de compréhension. La recherche montre aussi les limites de ce domaine, fixées par une situation institutionnelle qui souffre encore du manque de dialogue avec la société en général.

This essay addresses the process of Brazil's passive revolution, an ongoing "revolution without revolution" that has dominated the movement of Brazilian society from the founding days of the nation-state through contemporary times, where the predominant topic has become the universalization of citizenship. Against a backdrop of emerging democracy, institutionalized through Brazil's 1988 Constitution, the essay asks about the chances of seeing a reversal in the direction of the binomial characteristic of passive revolutions - conservation change - towards a movement that places more emphasis on change rather than on conservation. Such a reversal would call for an actor identified with the expression of the antithesis, an actor who must in particular be capable of dealing with the relations between political democracy expressed within an institutional arena, on the one hand, and the process of social democratization, on the other - as has been the case of today's Landless Workers Movement. Although within the social arena social movements have managed to trigger molecular ruptures in the forms of domination to which they have traditionally been exposed, if they are to turn this process of transformismo to their favor, they must move into the realm of the state, something that will inevitably require these actors to enter into alliances and to endeavor to gain recognition as general interpreters of their society

Dans cet article on examine le processus de révolution passive au Brésil, une incessante "révolution sans révolution", qui dirige le mouvement de la société brésilienne depuis ses débuts comme Etat-nation jusqu'à nos jours, où la question de la citoyenneté s'impose. On cherche ici à vérifier les possibilités, face à l'émergence de la démocratie institutionnalisée suivant la Constitution de 1988, d'un retournement d'orientation du binôme situation-changement, apanage des révolutions passives, au profit d'un mouvement remplaçant le statu quo par le changement. Ce retournement pourrait relever du comportement d'un acteur représentant l'antithèse de ce mouvement, surtout par son aptitude à faire face aux rapports entre, d'un côté, l'aspect institutionnel de la démocratie politique et, de l'autre côté, le processus de démocratisation sociale tel que l'accomplit, aujourd'hui, le Mouvement des Travailleurs Sans-Terre. Si les mouvements sociaux ont donc réussi, dans le cadre de la société au sens large, à faire éclater certaines formes de domination auxquelles les travailleurs ne cessent d'être soumis, par ailleurs, pour aboutir au revirement du processus en leur faveur, il leur faudrait pouvoir approcher les mécanismes de l'État, ce qui suppose le chemin des alliances et des efforts qu'un acteur sera obligé de mettre en place afin d'être reconnu comme interprète de la société où il vit

Quem deve prestar lições a quem: a América à Europa ou vice-versa? O autor interpreta o pensamento de Tocqueville à luz dessa questão, trabalhando com o conceito de americanismo - isto é, a conciliação que se tornou possÃvel nos Estados Unidos, sem que rupturas revolucionárias ocorressem, entre estado social de igualdade e liberdade, entre interesse e virtude, entre privado e público. É essa conciliação, argumenta o autor, que Tocqueville, atento para a irresistÃvel igualização das condições de vida na Europa, viu na experiência norte-americana.

Who should learn from whom: America or Europe? The author interprets Tocqueville's thought in the light of this question, working with the concept of 'Americanism' - to wit, the bringing together of the social state of equality and of liberty, of interest and of virtue, of private and public life, that took place in America without revolucionary rupture. It was this that Tocqueville, with an eye on the European experience of irresistible equalization of life conditions, saw in the American experience.