The decision of the Federal Supreme Court that maintained Renan Calheiros in the presidency of the Federal Senate made collapse the last bastion of ethics and morality of Brazilian political institutions because it represented the pinnacle of the deterioration of Brazil's political institutions. The minister of the Federal Supreme Court Luis Roberto Barroso told the press that it is inadmissible to fail to comply with a court order regarding a coup d'état or civil disobedience. The maintenance of Renan Calheiros in the presidency of the Senate represents an attack against the legal order of the Country and popular will that in the manifestation of the day 04/12 demanded the "outside Renan". The Supreme Federal Court thus integrates with the slough of the Executive Power and the Legislative Power. With the demoralization of the Supreme Court, the precedent of not respecting judicial decisions in the form of a preliminary injunction is now open.

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THE LAST BASTION OF MORALITY IN BRAZIL, THE SUPREME
FEDERAL COURT, COLLAPSED
Fernando Alcoforado
It has been frequent the occurrence of events that configure the conflict between the
exercise of ethics and politics in Brazil. The term ethics represents a set of moral values
and principles that should guide human conduct in society. Ethics serves to establish
rules of conduct that ensure the balance and good functioning of society, ensuring that
no one is harmed. In this sense, ethics is related to the feeling of social justice. Ethics is
built by a society based on historical and cultural values. From the point of view of
Philosophy, Ethics is a science that studies the values and moral principles of a society
and its groups.
Each society and each group has its own codes of ethics. In addition to the general
principles governing good social functioning, there is also the ethics of certain specific
groups or places. In this sense, we can mention medical ethics, engineer ethics, work
ethics, business ethics, educational ethics, sports ethics, journalistic ethics, ethics in
politics, etc. In turn, the study of the character of the individual and customs is called
moral. Ethics and moral become synonymous, designating the same object and the same
field of philosophical inquiry.
Roman moralists, for the most part, take up the Stoic view that the ultimate end of
human actions lies in virtue itself. They defend the thesis that virtuous action is defined
by righteousness or honesty in the acts practiced. Moral is for them the philosophical
discipline that establishes a set of duties that the nature imposes to the man, either with
respect to itself, or with respect to the other men. Politics, in turn, for Roman moralists
is responsible for establishing the conditions for a just and happy life.
For Aristotle, Politics is the most supreme science, to which the other sciences are
subordinate, and from which all others serve themselves in a Greek city. The task of
Politics is to investigate the best form of government and institutions capable of
guaranteeing collective happiness. According to Aristotle, man is a social and political
animal by nature. And if man is a political animal, it means that he has a natural need to
live in society, to promote the common good and happiness.
With the thesis of Machiavelli exposed in his work The Prince defeat Aristotle
conception of politics as a search for justice and the common good. In each historical
epoch, the foundation of politics and the state for Machiavelli is the maintenance of
political power by the ruling classes. For Machiavelli, the essential purpose of politics
is, in short, to conquer and maintain power. It is based on this view that Machiavelli
coined his famous and most controversial phrase: the ends justify the means.
Throughout history there are numerous examples of ruling classes that use all legitimate
and illegitimate means to maintain themselves in power or to conquer it. Those in power
use the apparatus of the state to promote themselves and their coreligionists in electoral
disputes. It is said that President Fernando Henrique Cardoso would have corrupted
parliamentarians to vote on the constitutional amendment that made his re-election
viable. President Lula used the state machine to elect his candidate Dilma Roussef to the
presidency of the Republic. Whoever is out of power and seeks to conquer it also uses
non ethical methods to defeat those in power. Carlos Lacerda's campaigns to overthrow

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presidents Getúlio Vargas, Juscelino Kubitchek and João Goulart are good examples of
this type of attitude of those who are out of power.
It is legitimate for the ends to justify the means used, but only to the extent that such
means do not contradict the intended ends. This means that not everything that is done
is acceptable. It is only acceptable that which contributes to the attainment of the
desired end and does not mean the negation of it. With Machiavelli, politics ceases to be
thought from ethics and religion. In this sense, Machiavelli represents a double rupture:
with the classics of Greco-Roman Antiquity and medieval Christian values. In
Machiavelli, politics identifies itself with the space of power as an activity on which the
collective existence is based and which has priority over the other spheres of human
life. Politics merges with objective reality, with the concrete problems of relations
between men. The politics described in The Prince with countless examples drawn from
the story more resembles Dante's hell than the promised paradise.
For Machiavelli, politics must be concerned with ethics and morals. By liberating
politics from religious morality, Machiavelli made explicit his earthly character and
made it something that could be assimilated by the commoners of mortals. It is not by
chance that Machiavellianism has become synonymous with a political practice devoid
of morality and good faith, an astute and rogue procedure. In this way, the behavior of
the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which, in collaboration with the Executive Power
(Michel Temer) and the Legislative Power (Rodrigo Maia), has maintained Renan
Calheiros in the presidency of the Federal Senate, even as defendant in process in the
STF and after he had failed to comply with an injunction issued by Minister Marco
Aurelio that removed him from the presidency of the Senate.
The decision of the Federal Supreme Court that maintained Renan Calheiros in the
presidency of the Federal Senate made collapse the last bastion of ethics and morality of
Brazilian political institutions because it represented the pinnacle of the deterioration of
Brazil's political institutions. The minister of the Federal Supreme Court Luis Roberto
Barroso told the press that it is inadmissible to fail to comply with a court order
regarding a coup d'état or civil disobedience. The maintenance of Renan Calheiros in
the presidency of the Senate represents an attack against the legal order of the Country
and popular will that in the manifestation of the day 04/12 demanded the "outside
Renan". The Supreme Federal Court thus integrates with the slough of the Executive
Power and the Legislative Power. With the demoralization of the Supreme Court, the
precedent of not respecting judicial decisions in the form of a preliminary injunction is
now open.
The panorama of Brazilian politics throughout its history and in the current conjuncture
reflects the postulates of Machiavelli. In spite of this, many power holders act according
to the principles contained in Machiavelli's work, which are based on a utilitarian,
pragmatic view based on the rational calculation of the cost / benefit ratio. This was the
case of the STF decision that sought to prevent the presidency of the Federal Senate
from being assumed by PT Senator Jorge Viana to benefit the Michel Temer
government. Few are the holders of power in Brazil who respect ethical and moral
principles and develop their action in the defense of the interests of society.
In addition to the gigantic economic and social crisis that leads Brazil to bankruptcy, the
country faces a process of ethical and moral disruption in the political-institutional
plane never seen in its history. In order to overcome the political, ethical and moral
crisis in Brazil, it is necessary to celebrate a new social pact that requires: 1) the

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resignation of president Michel Temer; 2) the convening of a new National Constituent
Assembly to re-order the national life on new bases; And 3) general elections in Brazil.
In order to overcome the ethical and moral crisis in Brazil, it is necessary for the
National Constituent Assembly to deliberate on political, state and public administration
reform, in addition to preventing ethical and moral deviations from Public authorities,
with the adoption of immediate measures aimed at exemplary punishment of all those
that violate ethical and moral principles, transparency of acts practiced by public
managers, monitoring of Organized Civil Society in the monitoring of public sector
management and fight against crime.
Além da gigantesca crise econômica e social que conduz o Brasil à bancarrota, o País
enfrenta um processo de descalabro ético e moral no plano político-institucional nunca
visto em sua história. Para superar a crise política, ética e moral no Brasil, é preciso
celebrar um novo pacto social que exige: 1) a renúncia de Michel Temer; 2) a
convocação de uma nova Assembleia Nacional Constituinte Exclusiva para reordenar a
vida nacional em novas bases; e, 3) realização de eleições gerais no País. Para superar a
crise ética e moral no Brasil, é preciso que a Assembleia Nacional Constituinte
Exclusiva delibere sobre a reforma política, do estado e da administração pública, além
de prevenir desvios éticos e morais de gestores públicos, com a adoção de medidas
imediatas que visem a punição exemplar de todos os que atentam contra os princípios
éticos e morais, a transparência dos atos praticados pelos gestores públicos, a vigilância
da Sociedade Civil Organizada no acompanhamento da gestão do setor público e o
combate à criminalidade.
*Fernando Alcoforado, 76, membro da Academia Baiana de Educação, engenheiro e doutor em
Planejamento Territorial e Desenvolvimento Regional pela Universidade de Barcelona, professor
universitário e consultor nas áreas de planejamento estratégico, planejamento empresarial, planejamento
regional e planejamento de sistemas energéticos, é autor dos livros Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento
(Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos
Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the
Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora, Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e
combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011),
Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012),
Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2015) e As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016). Possui blog na Internet (http://fernando.alcoforado.zip.net). E-mail:
falcoforado@uol.com.br.