Abstract:
This article analyzes three books on the Direct
Elections Now campaign. Beginning with a small
demonstration in Goiânia in early 1983, the
campaign grew throughout that year, gathering
together more than a million people in its final
demonstration in January 1984 in the capital of
the state of São Paulo. The campaign polarized
Brazilian society because it proposed direct
election of the President of the Republic, after
a long period of civil-military dictatorship. The
government was trying to insure that the next
president would be elected through an electoral
college, while the opposition tried to disrupt
that process. Our analysis, based on a Marxist
theory of the State, tries to demonstrate the
commitment of those efforts to the idea of
broadening democratic and citizenship spaces in
Brazil, and to underscore the limits that resulted
from that choice of strategy.
Keywords: Direct Elections Now. State.
Democracy. Marxist theory.
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