Cross-Cultural Blog

In my paper, I examine the favela in the context of Brazil’s democracy. The favela is a state within the state; although geographically an integral part of Rio de Janeiro, it is a socially, economically and politically marginalized state within Brazil. This paper is an attempt to find out what role the democratic government is playing in the favela wars and how come the democracy is not benefiting the large class of Brazilian favelados? The huge gap between the rich and the poor is a major characteristic of the extremely stratified Brazilian society; also, the military regime, which ruled Brazil till 1985 initiating the social injustice, is still indirectly controlling the distribution of wealth and political power, even under the flag of democracy. I evaluate the situation on three interesting political levels: The first is the politics within the favela itself. I use two examples of favelas, one profiting from vote selling, and the other not participating in elections; at the end, both are politically apathetic and thus excluded from Brazil’s democracy. Instead, the favela has a de facto internal government headed by the dealers and acknowledged by the locals, a factor the documentary succeeds to show. The second level is the national level, the Brazilian democracy. Whereas Brazil undoubtedly has an efficient democratic system, its democracy seems to be operating with the favelas external to its drive. The government played a minor role in the last 50 years attempting to find new housings for the favelados and failed. The elite’s privileges are to be safe-guarded and the favelas neglected, even in the basic services, like health and education. The third level of political disintegration is the international level. The international level is surprisingly present, both in pressuring the Brazilian government and selling armaments to the dealers. Both the economic threat of Wall Street firms and the political power of Washington D.C were practiced against today’s president Lula, the Working Party candidate, during his first elections in 2002. The American ‘intervention’ might be explained as an anti-leftist stance, but its exaggerated intensity stays enigmatic. Those international pressures seem to represent an international (or mainly American) interest in the preservation of the status quo. Today’s Brazil is arguably moving towards a better democracy under President Lula with his plans for the redistribution of lands and a long term plan to end the seclusion of the favelados. The favelados, however, have established their own state with their own rules within Brazil, a new state, where they might finally get a voice.