The globalization of indifference the role of social capital in the recovery of citizen appreciation in Brazil

Abstract

This article explores the impact of the globalization process in the structuring of a type of political culture characterized by the resignation (there is nothing that can be done) and hostility in regards to politics. The paper emphasizes especially, the economic and social effects (market forces) in the configuration of terciary social relations, which means that the citizen establishes a direct relation with the incumbent executive disregarding the traditional mediating organizations. Such situation we argue is the result of the prevalence of traditional political practices (c1ientelism, personalism and patrimonialism), which prosper towards inertia. This takes place in spite of the presence of poliarquical procedures, which signals for the need to propose new paradigms in order to solve the serious problems of inequality and social exc1usion in Brazil. Then the paper proposes the concept of Social capital as an analytic category that could be useful for a deeper understanding of the lack of citizenship of Brazilians, at least, in the social dimension. The paper conc1udes proposing a comprehensive approach of the democratic deficit in Brazil, through which the social problems are analyzed in various levels of analysis (macro = globalization), (meso = institutions) and (micro = cultural factors).