A responsabilidade do poder político no estado constitucional sob o paradigma da democratic responsiveness

[EN] The central goal of this thesis is to devise normative proposals for defining political accountability that can be used as a mechanism to shape democratic responsiveness, whose fundamental attribute is, in turn, to promote the link between political activity and society’s expectations and interests. Based on the premises that democratic responsiveness should be a fundamental goal of today’s Constitutional State and that adding responsiveness to the political process is, unquestionably, a necessary measure, this study argues for the adoption of a normative model in which the three prongs of political accountability – responsibility, accountability and liability – promote an approximation between political authority and society, and this is coherent with a more substantial shaping of the principle of the sovereignty of the people in a democracy, thus mitigating the deficiencies caused by procedural democracy theories and independent political representation in this field. Stressing the importance of the role of the Constitution and the Law over politics, our first proposal for defining political accountability that fulfills the goals described above is to adopt a responsive legal system, in which the norms prioritize the final result, and by so doing, accountability attached to political activity takes place based on the results attained by such political activity. Our next proposal is to value and redefine the role of judicial review as an essential tool to promote the effectiveness of political accountability; especially in the sense of ensuring the integrity and effectiveness of the institutions and procedures developed within the scope of improving responsiveness in the political process. Without necessarily invading traditional fields under the other Branches of power, this study advocates a more committed Judiciary in terms of achieving the necessary requisites to implement democratic responsiveness. As our third and last proposal, we argue that government activity should play a programmatic role, valuing the role government programs can play in bringing together political activity and the more urgent interests and expectations of society, especially when there are mechanisms for the people to participate in developing said programs. This latter aspect is of utmost importance for accountability because it renders prospective accountability possible, that is, it enables society’s direct participation in establishing the priorities of government activity, which, in our point of view, is a very significant perspective for the achievement of the democratic responsiveness advocated herein. Finally, this study emphasizes that the proposals presented are only general guidelines to achieve a goal that we consider urgent in today’s social and government scenarios, which is to qualify our institutes and institutions. In our view, the quest to continuously improve the Constitutional State, democracy and political accountability, by setting quality parameters and paradigms, must be a permanent effort on the part of social scientists; and it was within this scope that this study was developed.

Author

• Lorencini, Bruno César

• Academic Dissertations
• Constitutional State
• Political activity
• Political Science
• Tesis y disertaciones académicas
• Universidad de Salamanca (España)
• Ciencia política
• Estado constitucional
• Actividad política

Identifier

hdl:10366/123003

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/123003