Mangabeira Unger’s democratic experimentalism as an progressive alternative

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze the Mangabeira Unger’s doctrine of the democratic experimentalism as an alternative to the predominant institutional drawings present in the contemporary West. In the first part, I expose the Unger’s critics to the liberal and social-democratic doctrine, and to the constitutional traditions of Weimar and Madison. That are, in the philosopher’s point of view, fixed under a set of basic institutions that are unable to reinvent themselves. In the second part, I discuss the philosophical assumptions of the democratic experimentalism’s doctrine, presenting a picture about the democracy, the mankind and of the Brazil. Lastly, I present the Unger’s doctrine of democratic experimentalism as a progressive alternative to the reformist left.