Movimentos sociais e democracia radical: analisando possíveis articulações em busca de um projeto hegemônico de esquerda

Abstract

This thesis presents, as theoretical foundation, the radical model of democracy developed by the belgian Chantal Mouffe and the argentine Ernesto Laclau. In this model, the authors defend the creation of a new left-wing hegemonic political project, based on the articulation between the so-called new social movements, who fight against the different forms of oppression that characterize contemporaneity. Radical democracy, then, is one in which the traditional social movements that fight against the damaging effects of capitalism are able to articulate with the new movements that fight against the oppression of gender, racial or sexual orientation, through the so-called principle of democratic equivalence. However, Mouffe and Laclau emphasize that democratic equivalence requires the formation of a true collective will among the social movements that participate in the articulation, since it is only through this collective will that the popular identity that can guarantee the conquest of political hegemony will be symbolized by the articulated groups. Based on this theoretical framework, the process of articulation among Brazilian social movements was analyzed. The objective was to investigate whether, in Brazil, the social movements that are fighting against the economic and social oppression can establish a democratic equivalence with the movements that fights against the oppression of identity. More specifically, the thesis investigated, empirically, whether the elements that constitute the collective will are present in the articulation between these social movements. To achieve this objective, a qualitative research was carried out, strategically based on the analysis of a case study, namely, the articulation between the Landless Workers Movement (MST), the main Brazilian social movement and with a solid tradition in struggle for agrarian reform, and the feminist and LGBT movements, which have a primordial identity nature. The methods used to obtain the data were documental analysis and semi-structured interviews with some national leaders representing the mentioned movements. After the interpretation of the obtained data, it was verified that, until now, the MST and the movements of identity have not been able to establish a democratic equivalence in the way advocated by Mouffe and Laclau, since they were unable to form a collective will among them.