O poder legislativo e a reforma político-institucional no âmbito da política externa brasileira: uma análise a partir das propostas de Emenda Constitucional

Abstract

Since the Brazilian Constitution of 1824 the conduct of foreign policy has been of considerable concentration in the Executive Branch, having the Legislative Branch a post factum role in its decision making process. This institutional model was not altered by the Federal Constitution of 1988, which established the exclusive competence of the President of the Republic to conclude treaties, conventions and other international acts subject to a referendum of the National Congress when they incur burdensome charges or commitments to national patrimony. In this context, part of the national literature has brought to the discussion the role of the Legislative in the conduct of external relations, debating its role as a mere locus homologous to the decisions coming from the Executive. Likewise, since the late 1990s, there has been a growing movement for the presentation of proposals for amendments to the Constitution (PEC’s) by parliamentarians in order to promote a political-institutional reform in the distribution of competences in the scope of foreign policy. In this way, the objective of this paper is to answer the following question: what is the potential veto point in the decision making process of these PECs, considering that, to date, none of the measures presented has achieved its objective. And in this sense, one will try to understand when, under what conditions and for what reasons, this Power chooses to formally propose the alteration of the rules of the political game in this scope. Thus, it is based on the hypothesis that the Constitution and Justice Commission of the Legislative Houses of the National Congress is a potential veto point for the measures that are the object of this research, acting more for the non-inclusion of these proposals for voting in plenary of that Committee, than for its express rejection in the opinions issued. Methodologically, the bibliographical and documentary research will be used with a qualitative study and analysis of data content regarding these proposed Constitutional Amendments presented at both Houses of the National Congress in the post-enactment period of CF/88 until 2015.