The Return of Conflict: Republican Democracy

Resumo

The purpose of this article is to present an association of the concepts of conflict, in the sense proposed by Machiavelli, in freedom as non-domination, according to the definition of contemporary neo-republicanism, and especially Philip Pettit, and in categorical inequality as defined by Charles Tilly. The intention is to formulate a theory that can be used as a guide for the State in situations of inequality that are intolerable for democracy — particularly those in which practiced by groups of people with special traits in detriment of others. This theoretical formulation will be denominated republican democracy as it combines the formulations of democratic theory proposed by Tilly with the contributions of the leading contemporary theoreticians of republicanism.