Brazilian Constitutional Hardball: Institutions and the Constitutional Instability

Past experiences considered that main threats to democracy were the coups d'états. However, in a global context, the processes initiated in elected governments resulted in the democracy embrittlement. One of the mechanisms used in this process is the constitutional hardball: the use of mechanisms allowed by the constitution and laws regard the relationship between the powers, can lead to the weakening of the mechanisms of checks and balances. It occurs when the mechanisms of direct confrontation between the powers are established, extrapolating the regular and cooperative interpretation. The present work intends to analyse the Brazilian political crisis based on the constitutional hardball. The process of a political and economic crisis led to the questioning of institutions and, for some, a constitutional crisis. The aim of this paper is to evaluate to what extent the different interpretation of the constitution is a central part of the process of Brazilian democratic fragilization