{
  "id": 12393323,
  "title": "OPINIÃO. Projeto Brasil: o império da Sociedade sobre o Estado",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/06/opiniao-projeto-brasil-o-imperio-da-sociedade-sobre-o-estado",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-06T14:04:42.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Brazil Journal",
    "slug": "brazil-journal",
    "url": "https://braziljournal.com/opiniao-projeto-brasil-o-imperio-da-sociedade-sobre-o-estado/"
  },
  "original_language": "pt",
  "account": "On April 7, 1978, Teotônio Vilela addressed the Senate to introduce a concept born in partnership with his wife, Raphael de Almeida Magalhães. Known as the Projeto Brasil, it was a vision beyond a government, an election, or a generation. In 1978, Brazil was under a military regime, with the AI-5 decree still in force and Vilela serving as a senator for ARENA, the party that supported the regime. The Projeto Brasil aimed to envision a country beyond the current political cycle. Its purpose was to contribute to constructing a new society, founded on a more open social pact and greater popular participation. Its vision was summed up in a simple statement: \"The Projeto Brasil seeks to restore the Empire of Society over the State.\" At that moment, the phrase held immediate significance, as the Congress had lost prerogatives, political rights were restricted, and the Executive accumulated incompatible powers with a democracy. However, the principle was greater than that historical circumstance: the State belongs to society, not the society to the State. Decades later, the 1988 Constitution was promulgated, but it would be historically incorrect to attribute the Projeto Brasil to that result. Despite being historically incorrect, it is difficult to read the document without recognizing several of the aspirations that would mark the new constitutional order: individual rights and guarantees, direct voting, balancing the Powers, and, above all, the idea that all power emanates from the people. Since 1988, Brazil has had governments of different ideological orientations, overcoming hyperinflation, expanding public policies, making privatizations, promoting economic reforms, and navigating fiscal crises, impeachments, periods of growth and recession. The country has changed significantly, but it has not been able to build a long-term national horizon. Brazilian politics has progressively turned into a power struggle, where we should also discuss what we want to do with that power and, above all, what kind of country we want to build. Brazil needs a secure legal State, limited by the Constitution, and strong in its ability to act. A State capable of combating crime, offering quality basic education, improving public health, executing infrastructure, protecting the most vulnerable, defending our borders, and regulating markets when necessary. Limited State does not mean weak State; it means a State that knows its responsibilities and also its limits. Strong where it needs to be present, efficient in what it does, and subject to the same rules that demands from society. The same principle should guide our institutions. The Executive, Congress, and Judiciary must exercise their functions equally conscious of their limits. In a democracy, independence does not mean power without limits. No institution is above the Constitution, and no Power is above society. In 1978, Teotônio and Raphael looked at a political order that was running out and decided to think of a new Brazil. Today, facing perhaps an even deeper technological transformation, we need to look ahead again. How will we transform our advantages into prosperity? Artificial intelligence is transforming economies, businesses, professions, and the very relationship between citizens and governments. Brazil needs to decide what place it intends to occupy in this new world. Therefore, a new Projeto Brasil cannot look only to the next election. It needs to look to 2050 and beyond. What country will receive our children and grandchildren? What education will a child born today have? Will they be able to grow by their own effort? Will they live in a safe city? Will they find opportunities in an economy transformed by technology? Will they have infrastructure and public services compatible with Brazil's potential? Will they be able to trust the institutions of their country? These questions are more important than the election itself. We can disagree, and we will continue to disagree, on taxes, size of the State, privatizations, social policies, labor legislation, and regulation. This is part of democracy. We do not need to eliminate differences between left and right to build a national project. But we need to find what can be above these differences: quality education, fiscal responsibility, public security, infrastructure, legal security, productivity, innovation, social mobility, freedom, and reliable institutions should not belong to a party. A new Projeto Brasil needs to be born from society and be able to survive the governments that implement it. It needs to accept power alternation without forcing the country to start over every four years. Governments pass. Priorities may change. The country continues. Fifty years after the Projeto Brasil, I do not see the sense in recovering Vilela and Magalhães' answers as if Brazil had stopped in time. What we need to recover is the courage to ask again the great questions. In this year's elections, we need to look beyond winners and losers, and start thinking about what we want to build together. For me, perhaps this is the best way to preserve Raphael's legacy: not to look only behind, but to continue the conversation that he and Teotônio started. And the name of this conversation does not need to be invented; it already exists: Projeto Brasil.",
  "summary": "Em 7 de abril de 1978, Teotônio Vilela subiu à tribuna do Senado para apresentar uma ideia construída com meu marido, Raphael de Almeida Magalhães. Chamaram-na de Projeto Brasil. Quase 50 anos depois, volto àquele texto não apenas pela memória de Raphael, mas porque acredito que o Brasil precisa novamente olhar para a frente e […] The post OPINIÃO. Projeto Brasil: o império da Sociedade sobre o…",
  "key_points": [
    "Projeto Brasil envisioned a society over the state in 1978",
    "Aims to restore \"Empire of Society\" over the State",
    "Challenges Brazil to build long-term national horizon"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}