A democracia como direito fundamental exercido por meio da cidadania ativa : uma análise da participação popular no Poder Legislativo Municipal de Juazeiro do Norte - CE, no ano de 2016.

Abstract

The present work investigates the presence of the active citizenship’s sense in the political culture of Brazil with the basis in the popular participation in activities from the Municipal Legislative Power. The problem that the study proposes is to analyze if the instruments of popular participation listed in the Federal Constitution of 1988 has been used in a way to influence the deliberations of the Town Hall from Juazeiro do Norte and if contributes to strengthen the sense of citizenship. The literature consider the active citizenship a fundamental element of participative democracy and one condition for a democratic model compromised with social justice, but also brings evidence that the political participation of the citizens, in general, is fragile throughout history and of weak presence in the actuals occidental democracies. The main problem isn’t the inexistence of the laws, but, it is, the cultural limits that put away the political citizens. The Federal Constitution of 1988, the State Constitutions and the Brazilian legislation infraconstitutional has different instruments of popular participation propitious to the exercise of active citizenship, but in the municipal legislative those instruments not always are present. The case’s study of the Municipal Town Hall from Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará, reached to find out the characteristics and motivations of popular participation. The documental analysis revealed that not all of the instruments of participation are regulated and foreseen in the legislation and that are utilized more as benefits than citizen’s rights. The participation, that could be more intense, because of the proximity between representatives and represented, it is sporadic, occurring in moments of awareness of some categories or cities. The research utilizes the method of approach of character deductive and monographic procedure. The technique of research is bibliographic, documental, and field search, with the application of questionnaires to the present citizens at the sessions of the Town Hall. The work fits to the line of research of the Contemporary Constitutionalism of the Post-Grade Program in Law of UNISC, that search to understand the constitutional phenomenon in its plurality to guaranteed a balanced society.