Segurança pública e democracia: uma análise acerca da relação entre homicídios e qualidade democrática.

Abstract

The various debates dealing with democratic quality reflect a view that privileges electoral aspects. Comparisons about the democratic bet as a right to suffrage and the exercise of political freedoms constitute, in fact, the essence of the character of the political regime. However, while this rests on the assumption that democracy is assured in countries where competition and political participation are also, the data show that these factors alone do not explain the disparity between the degree of democratization in the countries of the globe, especially in America. Where about 65% of countries cannot control their homicide rates. In this paper, I analyze, comparatively, the democratic quality in 119 countries, based on an index created through factor analysis. From this, it is intended to extend the investigation about the existence and importance of the connection between public security and democracy seeking a better understanding of such political regime, as it exists in contemporary reality. This study includes an empirical dimension in which the main hypothesis is that in countries where there is more public security, democratic quality is also higher. The secondary hypothesis is that this is intrinsically related to the quality of state criminal justice institutions that have the opportunity to offer a range of coercions that discourage criminal practice from the perspective of rational choice. Regression analyzes indicate that public safety is an explanatory factor in democratic quality playing a more relevant role than variables commonly used in such studies. Therefore, it is suggested that the complex studies on democracy and its determinant aspects should include variables related to violence and the way the state has been working to contain it.