Democrtic participation: the dialogue between Mouffe's agonistic model and Urbinati's representative model

Abstract

The proposal of this article is a theoretical reflections as a result of debates about two categories: democracy and politics, levered by the work of two contemporary authors: Nadia Urbinati and her update on the debate about representation and advocacy; and Chantal Mouffe and her reflection-manifesto about the Agonistic Model of Democracy. The objective is to verify the possibilities that these authors bring to debate democracy, placed as the big question of contemporary politics. The introduction briefly contextualize the theme historically with the contribution of some classic theorists of political theory. In the second topic the thoughts of each one of the authors are apresented, trying to describe their theoretical differences, as well as the analytical convergences. In the conclusion the authors concepts are used to reflect on the participatory democratical model in Brazil, foreseen in the 1988 constitution and it’s perspectives to the advance of citizenship and it’s presence on the public sphere nowadays.