Democratization of Brazilian Foreign Policy

The main discussion in this paper is related to the participation of the Legislative Branch in the Brazilian foreign policy agenda, with a focus on its actions at the Rio-92 conference in 1992 and the Rio+20 conference in 2012. This effort was made possible by approaching analytical models that describe and evaluate the logic of interaction in democracies between different domestic actors in pursuit of their objectives, a process in which foreign policy is one of the components. It was necessary to outline the general bases of the democratization of foreign policy, the theoretical clashes and resistance to the subject, some of which have already been overcome, and the panorama of Brazilian foreign policy, taking into account the relationship between its actors and the country’s historical moments, approached with the aim of contextualizing the reader. The profiles and prerogatives of two of Brazil’s main foreign policy actors, Itamaraty and the National Congress, were outlined, revealing a change in the former’s pattern of isolation and the existence of institutionalized means for the latter to act more assertively on foreign policy agendas. A case study was carried out on the Rio 92 and Rio +20 Conferences.