Brazilian constitutional sentiment in the midst of the pandemic

How does the digital age reformulate public debate and raise discussions about state attributes in the face of the current sanitary calamity?

Abstract

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic in the world, the phenomena circumscribed to the era of connectivity acquired new contours and, consequently, demand a new analytical lens to think about democratic legitimacy, Law and politics. These last three elements, in turn, are interconnected by a nodal point: the constitutional sentiment, seen as a tool capable of dictating directions for the reinvention of post-pandemic life. After establishing a dialogue between different authors who dealt with the phenomenon of constitutional sentiment, the article seeks to critically analyze - through examples that occurred in the pandemic - the way in which virtual discussion forums incorporate, to a greater or lesser degree, principles of the Major Law. In addition to helping to understand how the 1988 Constitution spread throughout Brazilian society, the text aims at a critical reflection on the dilemmas, developments and repercussions on the future of a society increasingly inserted in the data economy of datas, algorithms and networks. Plunged into a state of crisis, the virtual cosmos began to present worrying symptoms of our times, such as denial and misinformation. The present study represents an invitation to make compatible, on the one hand, the Theory of the State and Constitutional Philosophy, and, on the other, the Technological Revolution: undoubtedly, understanding the nuances of digital activism is one of the greatest challenges of contemporary science.