Reforma agrária no Brasil: ensaios à luz da teoria de John Rawls

Abstract

With this essay, we intend to establish a relationship between the land reform in the country and the principles of justice of John Rawls. Because it is a relevant object of Brazil's agrarian agenda, we aim to analyze the Brazilian agrarian issue, pointing out the concepts of Rawlsian principles of justice and the idea of primary goods. We also explain the concepts of original position and veil of ignorance, as well as the principles of equality and difference. Rawls's theory of justice is a normative theory and is part of the public policies of several countries, among which is Brazil. The constitutional text of 1988 establishes that the discipline of land is supported by the doctrine of the social function of property, by means of which all the wealth to be produced must meet the social purpose. The agrarian reform, therefore, can not be seen only as a land distribution, but as public policies for the rural area, which is in fine tune with the principles inserted in the Brazilian Constitution. To scrutinize the Rawlsian theory leads to the search for elements that can base the agrarian reform, with a view to the most isonomic treatment in society, providing to all the obtaining of the primary goods. John Rawls, in developing his theory of justice, had the scope to supplant the utilitarian thinking that dominated law and philosophy in the 1970s in the United States. His work builds on the idea of the founding contract of the society, nevertheless attaches a different dimension to the notion of this social adjustment, in which the principles of justice are established. The Harvard philosopher offers a theory for institutions, elaborating the concept of justice as fairness, or, as Arruda Júnior asserts, "a deontological or, what is the same, Kantian theory. Rawls opposes the idea of purpose. It matters what is right to do and not what is good to do. The opposite is precisely the 'teleological' theory, rejected because it offers fragile grounds for rights and freedoms, whose violations may be justified in the name of absolute weight and assigned to an ultimate end. Since the basic structure of society is the main objective of justice, we can conclude, based on Rawls's theory, that the capacity to cooperate is an essential condition for agrarian reform in Brazil.