DEMOCRACY, DICTATORSHIP AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE BRAZILIAN PUBLIC PERCEPTION AND THE CURRENT POLITICAL SCENARIO

Abstract

This article aims to present perceptions, propositions and questions about Brazilians' view of notions that are key regulators of political life and memory in the country: democracy, dictatorship and human rights, and how they relate to the current Brazilian political scenario. These historical-social constructions were studied through the application of a virtual form, with open questions, factual and evaluative, about the two political regimes and how the protection and guarantee of human rights fits into each one. In addition, the form allowed the delineation of the age, socioeconomic and educational profile of the participants. The analysis sought to relate the responses received and the factors that produced variations in them with the bibliography on memories of the civil-military dictatorship and the democratic transition of the 1980s, as well as on the political moment of the present day. The results are complex, providing fertile ground for discussion. They are surprising in some aspects, contradicting research already done and previous expectations. In others, they confirm existing literature on the topic. Above all, they reflect the polarization of Brazilian society, which is intense in understanding and defending democracy as the foundation and framework of a political culture based on and that is the basis for human rights, on the one hand, and no less intense, on the other hand, in referring with great respect the times and the idea of dictatorship, disregarding the very need for such a culture.