O Brasil, a modernidade política e uma esquerda para o século XXI

Abstract

This review analyzes the book A Left for the 21st Century: Horizons, Strategies and Possibilities, by sociologist José Maurício Domingues. By exposing the central points, we argue that the book is a crucial theoretical and political contribution to the Brazilian left. From a theoretical point of view, it contains a critical and decolonized theorization of political modernity, as it interprets it beyond liberal democracy. From a political point of view, it offers a critical analysis of the classic strands of the left in order to make possible an important critique of the immediacy, the accommodation to the political system and authoritarianism that are decisive to explain the misdirections of the left when it assumed the Presidency of the Republic. Together, it offers a critical and realistic approach to designing social and political change that connects the left to the challenges of the 21st century.