Constitutional symbolism in new democracies.

The disobedience of rules could be observed since the beginning of humankind, however, the extensive non-achievement of rules in social reality could express a scenario of normative symbolism. When the expectation of some standards isn’t in accord with the social reality, the symbolic role of rules is hypertrophied and the constitution, as a core of a normative structure, progressively loses the authority. Thus, when constitutions face problems in social reality, the charter could denote merely a symbolic conception, without any social identification. Moreover, in new democracies, the constitution, especially in asymmetric societies, sometimes, works from top-down, affecting the democracy, with a lack of normative expectations, that may lead to a structural reform, from non-integrated groups. Consequently, this paper supports a popular-polycentrism in the constitution design, to increase the legitimacy and respect of the charter, avoiding social instability and symbolic constitutions.