The Brazilian demonstrations of June 2013 and their legal-political implications

Abstract

This research performs a study of the protests in June 2013 in Brazil. The aim is to explore the relations between social movements, law and politics and, consequently, investigate the possible implications caused by June 2013 protests in the Brazilian legal and political systems. In the context of complexity and contingency of contemporary society, the initial hypothesis is that social movements produce annoyance in the environment of functional systems, which process or not the protestors’ expectations. If not indifferent, the systems can react to claims through conservation (rejection) or change (acceptance). In order to empirically test the hypothesis raised, three socio-legal events highlighted during the protests in June are sequentially analyzed: (i) the demand for the right to public transportation; (ii) the repression to the right to protests and (iii) public discussion around the constitutional amendment projects (37/2011) and Legislative Decree (234/2011). The results of this investigation suggest that the demonstrations in June 2013, initially repressed by functional systems, were able to produce practical effects on law and politics, which were evidenced by the revocation of the increase in public transport fares and the archiving of projects able to change rules within the constitutional framework.