Disrespect for the Constitution Is at the Root of the Crisis

Brazil's institutional crisis did not come out of nowhere, the column argues. The country's republican dysfunctions made the current deterioration in relations, conduct and reputations almost inevitable. The Constitution's provision for a harmonious and autonomous division of responsibilities among the three branches is not ornamental. It is a basic requirement of democracy.

That principle was written into the 1988 constitutional order after 21 years in which Congress and the judiciary submitted to an executive branch swollen by dictatorship. Brazil endured and overcame shocks that tested the institutional design created during redemocratization. But, the column says, the country has failed to withstand the inability of the next generation to follow the path laid out by those architects.

The deterioration has come through authoritarianism, personal voluntarism, populism, the usurpation of functions and attacks on procedures and rules. The column rejects the idea that an abstract "system" should bear responsibility, saying the blame lies with those who lead and operate it. The executive chief, it says, chose to rely on judges open to alliances within the judiciary to overcome difficulties with an opportunistic and wary legislature. The result was a shared downward spiral of discredit.

The presidential election is taking place amid rejection and disenchantment. The Supreme Federal Court faces an impasse of unprecedented gravity, while Congress lacks leaders with the institutional stature required by the challenge. The column describes the outlook starkly: the tunnel is dark and the pit has no bottom.

In earlier times, politics would have supplied the answer. Instead, it lost strength and protagonism by devoting itself primarily to deals and outsourcing its responsibilities to judges with political leanings and a vocation for militant righteousness. The column ends with a warning that common sense should prevent a settlement designed merely to stop the bleeding through an arrangement involving the Supreme Court at any cost.