Os dissensos em torno de um nome: disputas dos sentidos de democracia na transição política (Ceará, 1945-1946)

Abstract

There is a winning memory concerning the concept of democracy. And it lies in the almost automatic connection with the sense of the electoral process as an arrival point instead of a starting point. That is due largely to the disputed definitions cuttings, since the political transition in 1945. However, which other senses have been in circulation? At that Brazil of the dictatorship with her censures, political arrests, and deaths, and crossed by the war atmosphere, the rising democracy was discussed as the establishment of a new era, and concomitantly was presented as an outgrowth of this. From the sidewalk talks to journalistic comments and columns, the dictatorship-war-democracy tripod was also a part of graduation speeches, manifestos, marches, and rallies, pointing out that the daily attention of various social segments was involved by the uncertainties of a country that glimpsed the (dis)continuities of a political transition. Thus, different groups and actors defined democracy invoking a repertoire of ideas and meanings present in the political language since the 19th century, with the "bourgeois revolutions", but also according to their desires, interests, and concerns. This research is about the attributed and discoursed meanings of democracy. We pursued how this concept was disputed by different social actors, especially from Ceará (press, workers, students, parliamentarians from political parties - PSD, UDN, PTB, PCB), from 1945 to 1946. Through the press, the Annals of the Constituent Assembly and the Parliament of Ceará, electoral results, memorials, statistical censuses, cartoons, letters, and poems, we understand it is possible to map experiences, conflicts, interests, and projects in the games of social disputes.