Municipality, federation and education: history of institutions and political ideas in Brazil. / "Município, federação e educação: história das instituições e das idéias políticas no Brasil"

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

This is a theoretical research, of historical and conceptual nature, which analyzes the configuration of municipal and federative political institutions, the way these political institutions were assimilated in Brazil and how they were articulated to the organization of national education. The text analyzes how the municipal and federative ideas and the organization of education have been formed in the Brazilian political and institutional scenario and how they have gained materiality since the enactment of the Federal Constitution of 1988, that represented the convergence point between these political institutions and the organization of Brazilian education. Based on the theoretical contribution of Political Science, this paper discusses the conceptual and historical basis of the relation between federalism, local power and education, based on the original idea of federation conceived by the founders of North-American federalism – James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay –, on the concepts of democracy of Alexis de Tocqueville and on the idea of total federation of Pierre-Joseph Proudhom, indicating the inadequacy of direct association which is generally made between the federative system, decentralization and democratization. Based on this verification, this paper analyzes the municipal institution beginning at its origins in Rome – passing through its application in Portugal – until its implantation in Brazilian lands, to prove that the municipal political institutions, transplanted to Brazil, didn’t have the essential principle of local autonomy present in the European communes, as in the case of Anglo-Saxon selfgovernment. Based on these historical evidences, we discuss the organization of education, regarding the offer of elementary schooling, in its relationship with the municipal and federative political institutions, indicating the purely ideological – and also idealistic – construction of Brazilian municipalist speech in the 40’s, which was vigorously retaken at the time of the constituent debate in the 80’s. The tradition of political thought regarding the organization of the Brazilian State was completely disregarded during the mentioned debate, which goes back to the liberal and decentralizing tradition of Tavares Bastos and Rui Barbosa, to the separatism as a solution for the conflicts between political centralization and decentralization and to the authoritarian and nationalistic tradition of Alberto Torres and Oliveira Vianna. The above was analyzed in this paper to show that the debate, between Anísio Teixeira and Carlos Correa Mascaro, which is considered as a pioneer in the municipalization of teaching, has omitted these traditions as if the organization of teaching in municipal areas was disconnected from the debate on the organization of the Brazilian State – this omission will also mark the debate on this theme during the 80’s up to the present date. The conclusions point towards the need to place the current municipal decentralization within the larger picture of contradictions and complexity of the Brazilian federalism.

ASSUNTO(S)

federalism right to education authoritarianism direito à educação municipalização federalismo autoritarismo organização do ensino organization of education decentralization of education liberalismo municipalization descentralização do ensino liberalism separatism separatismo

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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