The National Security Law

Brazil has been through, since the eighties, as of the enactment of the Constitution, a slow process of the reconstruction of democratic institutions. Although the country faced many changes that tested the strength of our democracy, such as in the case of the former President Collor’s impeachment, for example, the journey has been relatively victorious. The June 2013 movements, the 2014 presidential elections, the “Car Wash” operation (famous operation against corruption in Brazil, [Lava Jato] in Portuguese), former President Dilma’s impeachment, and the polarization of our politics has steered society towards radical division, weakening the trust in the country’s capability to build a long-lasting adequate institutional arrangement. This became clearer with President Bolsonaro, elected via an extreme right populist discourse. Nowadays, constitutional laws, fundamental rights, the press, the National Congress, and the Supreme Federal Court have been under periodic attacks, being tested on their capacity of endurance. Besides the continuous erosion of the country’s democratic foundations, twice, at least, the President considered the possibility of a coup in a classic sense, sadly well-known in our history. It is in this context that we find concern about an authoritarian legalism, characterized by an institutional defense from active advocacy against non-liberal practices of abusive constitutionalism.