Elitismo democrático: a demofobia schumpetereana enquanto paradigma teórico moderno

Abstract

The present work aims at analyzing one of the theories of democracy, which is linked to liberal thinking dominant in the 21st century. Its main reference is the Austrian Joseph Schumpeter and his work "Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy". The appreciation of the Schumpeterian theory occurs in the light of critics of modern democratic theory, such as Luis Felipe Miguel and his thesis on the theory of democratic elitism, linked to the understanding of "democratic democracy" of Thais Aguiar, who interprets that theories of classical democracy are founded in the fear of the people, so that the consolidation of the democratic pillars is based on an idea of ​​eliminating the people from the democratic process, that is, the people's decision-making capacity is reduced to representative democracy, that is, voting. Thus, elements of writings by C. Wright Mills are used to identify the construction of American democracy from the study of concepts such as elite and their formation in the politics of the United States of America, as well as text by Noam Chomsky to reinforce the interpretation of the US political tradition. It thus identifies the connection between the demo- phobic and elitist theory that brings the discourse of modern democracy and its practical application, making clear its success in maintaining a dominant social layer of political and economic power and using the illusion of democracy as a people's government to avoid the participation of this political decisions.