Abusive constitutionalism before democracy

Abstract

This article, through bibliographical and jurisprudential research, seeks to analyze abusive constitutionalism and the impacts caused on democracy. This phenomenon is perpetuated through constitutional amendments or the replacement of one constitution by another and aims to undermine and attack democratic institutions of law. Initially, it was necessary to address the concepts and theoretical foundations regarding the phenomenon. Furthermore, the characteristics and modalities of abusive constitutionalism were listed to better identify it, in this sense, it was possible to identify as characteristics the manipulation of the constituent process, the suppression of fundamental rights and the excessive concentration of powers, regarding the modalities are based on the episodic constitutionalism and structural abusive constitutionalism. Finally, the impacts that could occur on democracy were analyzed, with one of the main impacts being the erosion of democracy as well as the setback of all rights achieved through it. It is concluded that the phenomenon of abusive constitutionalism and the increase in its practices is very worrying as it leads to an erosion of democracy and a reduction in fundamental rights.