Modern Democracy, its Evolution and the Need for Optimization

Abstract

Despite being a relatively recent phenomenon, democracy seems to have been raised to the level of a ubiquitous system such that its existence and enshrinement can truly be understood as a postulate. It is thus very important to understand its evolution in particular from the advent of Modernity in order to understand how the model evolved adopting representation by political parties. Despite its qualities, criticism of the model, focused especially on the alleged lack of legitimacy, has always persisted. This, in most cases, is done in order to move toward its aim of a would-be collective ideal. It is in this evolutionary bias that we observe the construction of alternative models – which we prefer to see as complementary to the traditional representation by political parties - especially with the adoption of practices of direct democracy leading to a semi-direct system of representation. This system, adopted by the current Brazilian Constitution, which forecasts the use of plebiscite, referendum and popular initiative, does not seem to have put an end to the questioning and criticism. Rather, these have increased in recent decades, emerging in doctrine and coming to advocate the adoption of different experiences. These practices, with participatory and deliberative mechanisms, have the ability to seek eventual democratic optimization.