TITLE:
Contemporary Legal History and Ideology: The Search for an Effective Way to Protect Democracy after the Attempted Coup d’état in Brazil
AUTHORS:
Emanuel de Melo Ferreira
KEYWORDS:
Constitutional Law, Ideology, Coulp d’état
JOURNAL NAME:
Beijing Law Review,
Vol.16 No.2,
April
17,
2025
ABSTRACT: There is no doubt about the global erosion of liberal democracy, which has been under attack from severe authoritarian practices, including coup d’état attempts, as happened recently in the United States and Brazil. In this context, the present paper aims to investigate the following question: how must a constitution be interpreted in order to be an effective tool against authoritarianism? The quest for an effective way to protect democracy passes through a methodology that takes very seriously concerns over ideology, a theme rarely discussed by liberal constitutionalism, but one that has an enormous impact on the actual practices of officials like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro. The methodology under discussion here considers contemporary legal historical inquiry as it relates to the continuities of military dictatorship and—now—takes into account the context of yet another coup d’état in Brazil. In conclusion, it is argued that an effective protection of democracy demands that legality must be used to identify and overcome unconstitutional ideologies.