O papel da democracia intrapartidária na preservação e renovação do regime democrático brasileiro

Abstract

The political party is an essential institution of democracy. It acts as an integrating agent between social will and state activity, but today it is an institution that is increasingly discredited by the general public. The study of party models throughout history points to the party organization as an entity with an oligarchic core, as it increasingly distances itself from citizens by acting as cartels in the alternation of power and sustaining itself only under its institutional role, with a concentration of power in the figure of the party leadership. This problem is especially notable in the Brazilian party system, which is marked by an organizational independence that has increased the power of the party elite, while the party, with the concept of party loyalty, has control over parliamentary mandates, despite being seen as an institution incapable of even selecting its candidates through a lens of morality, which is why the Clean Record law needs to be implemented, transferring this filter from the party organization to the judiciary. These circumstances are worrying given the crisis scenario that democracy is going through around the world with the rise of populist leaders, including in Brazil. In these circumstances, the implementation of intra-party democracy practices, aimed at guaranteeing maximum participation by members, the possibility of internal competition within the political party and providing greater representation of the party in the eyes of the population, are seen as possible solutions to the current scenario, since the democratic system needs parties that are agile, participatory and transparent; the value of these practices of internal democracy are intertwined with those of democracy itself, which offers a means of course correction through the clash of ideas, which does not result in the complete overthrow of one side and offers the possibility of the rotation of power and the sharing of prosperity, so that it encourages cooperation between different parties.The result of this enquiry is the conclusion that intra-party democracy is not only a solution, but a necessity for the preservation of democracy in the current context.