A construção social dos princípios conformadores e das normas programáticas de política externa brasileira na Constituição Federal de 1988

Abstract

The following article delves into the Constituent Assembly of 1987-1988 in order to investigate the social construction of the constitutional devices regulating the aims and approaches of Brazilian foreign policy. Research has therefore been conducted into literature on groups of interest in order to identify the actors and interests to have informed the development of such devices during the years mentioned, as well as the international restrictions to have affected the actors. By means of isolating and systematically dealing with each of the proposals analyzed, the study harnesses the tools employed in process training in order to identify the actors and interests that sought to influence the constituent process and served to shape the constitutional devices. The results demonstrate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ role as an important source and agent in the constitutionalization of values and practices in foreign policy, mainly mobilizing groups of interests across various organizational levels, which, in promoting their preferences for limiting and orienting foreign policy, led to an expansion of the international agenda in Brazil.