participatory democracy; Social movements; Democratic Resistance; People Without Fear Front; Collective Action Repertoires;
The research deals with the relationship between democracy and social movements and the contributions of the latter to the process of democratic resistance, from the extra institutional field, through their repertoire, tactical actions and performance, when attacking democracy and its institutions, among years 2019 and 2022, referring to the government of Jair Bolsonaro, including January 8, 2023. The political and empirical field is limited to one of these resistance networks, the Frente Povo Sem Medo. The general objective is to research and try to explain how the networks of organizations that are part of the FPSM articulated among themselves and with other resistance networks, in defense of Brazilian democracy and the main actions and tactical choices that made up the repertoire used. The thesis question is: How did Frente Povo Sem Medo articulate itself internally and externally and what repertoire did it use in the trenches of democratic resistance, between the years 2019 and 2022? The hypothesis is that the FPSM, through extra institutional activism, helped bring the demos closer to institutions and strengthened a model of democracy more permeable to the influence of ordinary citizens. The theoretical support is based on literature on participatory democracy, social movements, activism, repertoire, tactical choices and performances. The methodology will use Network Analysis and Case Studies and will collect data from primary and secondary sources. The networks will be analyzed online using automated tools for scraping publications on digital social media, and journalistic articles in the national online press to record speeches and actions attacking democracy from inside and outside institutions, which generated counter-demonstrations of resistance and extra-institutional defense of democracy.