PATRIOTA party proposals

Translated on October 9, 2017, from http://patriota51.org.br/proposta-patriota/

Patriot Proposal

The PATRIOTA party aims to ensure the authenticity of the representative system, defend the fundamental rights defined in the Federal Constitution and achieve institutional political power in a peaceful and democratic way, in its various instances, in defense of Christian values, especially the protection of life from conception and the traditional family as the fundamental cell of society, as well as the intransigent defense of economic freedom, of debureaucratization and of fiscal responsibility.

PATRIOTA, a morally conservative, economically in defense of the free-market and confessionally Christian party, defends the following values and flags.

2. Values and Flags
The great differential of the PATRIOTA in relation to other parties are the high values that guide all the concrete public proposals elaborated by it. They are:

2.1. Valorization of the homeland[1]
Democracy starts with the greek word "demos", with the people, and in its name the power will be exercised.

A people is the set of individuals bound by a common history, their traditions, values, beliefs and goals shared in a natural and voluntary way, forming bonds of trust and identity that lead to respect, cooperation, harmony, peace and social order.

A society built and ordered in this way is a homeland. To be patriotic is to know, cultivate, value and defend the homeland, its history, its culture, its territory, its resources and its people. It is to understand who we are to protect what unites us.

2.2 Respect for conservative christian doctrine

PATRIOTA is a confessional party in a secular state, which is absolutely natural in all major democracies in the world, with a broad and profound view on the great national themes. PATRIOTA's confessionalism is inclusive, since every Brazilian, whatever religion he professes, is welcome to join the party, as long as he's in accordance with the Christian values professed in this document.

From conservative christian doctrine, PATRIOTA highlights the following points:

(i) The right to life is inviolable, and is the basis of all other human rights. The main objective of all public policy is the promotion of a long and healthy life, with access to knowledge, full[2] social relations and a pattern of sustainable consumption, resulting in a dignified human existence for every citizen. In this sense, any and all abortionist or eugenicist policies are rejected by PATRIOTA.

(ii) Since human nature is constant and ethical truths are enduring, we believe in the good that society and government can accomplish if governed by clear principles and commitment to the common good.

(iii) The respect for national and local institutions created throughout human social coexistence as a fundamental cornerstone of the maintainance of civic order, these been valued and strengthened so that there is a peaceful continuity of society.

(iv) The diversity of thoughts, ways of life and opinions are the basis of democrac, being one of the principles most dear to the conservative. This diversity should be contained only when the way of life in question attacks order, social peace, freedom, property and social customs.

(v) Every new public policy or political thought must be viewed, discussed and, if necessary, applied with the utmost prudence, measuring its economic impacts and not only their immediate benefits, but also their effects in the medium and long term, especially if such elements deviate too far from the core[3] of social traditions.

(vi) Although human nature is constant and ethics permanent, the way this nature manifests can change over time. Conservatives are not averse to social progress and change, on the contrary, they understand that development is essential, but it is only truly valid insofar as it occurs prudently and sustainably, in an eternal recionciliation between the forces of permanence and advancement, making society grow vigorously and continuously. PATRIOTA understands that society is the consubstantiation of a pact between generations and a partnership made between thosw who live and those who once lived here[4].

(vii) All other principles deriving from Christian doctrine necessary for the establishment of social peace and the fight against extreme poverty, injustice and social division.

2.3. Individual Liberty
The promotion of individual liberty is the end goal for which men seek to organize and interact in society. Every man is born with the goals of discovering who he is and what he wants to seek on behalf of his happiness, only being able to reach them in an environment of free choice. This free choice can only be achieved through a strong understanding and application of the right of private property.

2.4. Individual Responsibility
Direct corollary of individual freedom, every free individual must be held accountable for their choices, be it positively or negatively.

Citizens inserted into society, who respect the laws and produce[5] must be rewarded through the meritocratic system where society voluntarily, through the price system, rewards the efforts of each person.

On the other hand, citizens who disregard the law and abuse their individual liberty, restricting or nullifying the individual liberty of others, must be held accountable to the extent of their actions and the intentions they put into practice.

2.5. Democratic State of Law[6]
The Democratic State of Law is one of the most effective elements of stabilization and promotion of social peace.

PATRIOTA understands that the Democratic State of Law is based on the following ideas:

2.5.1. Rule of Law
The Rule of Law presupposes respect for the strenght and hierarchy of norms drawn from legitimate democratic processes (formal legitimacy) and respect for individual liberty and individual rights, being prohibited it's use for the purposes personally favoring individuals or politically organized interest groups (material legitimacy).

It is PATRIOTA's objective to take out of the national legal order norms elaborated without formal or material legitimacy, either through judicial or legislative procedures, because they lack moral grounds.

2.5.2. Deconcentration[7] and Decentralization of Powers
The econcentration and decentralization of pwoers is the next step to the classical idea of separation of powers, not being enough merely the clear division between executive, legislative and judiciary powers and it's system of checks and balances, but also a clear deconcetration of the powers these bodies in favor of civil society, as well as prioritarily favoring the resolution of social conflicts in the state bodies closest to citizens, like the States and Municialities, also known as the principle of subsidiarity.

2.5.3. Democracy
The democratic system of government has as its purpose the stabilization of social relations and has proved to be the most efficient means of peaceful resolution of conflicts between antagonistic social groups, and PATRIOT advocates the promotion of its purest form, where collective decisions must be restricted to matters of public order, being prohibited any deliberation that purports to suppress individual rights or guarantee legal privileges to individuals or minority or majority groups.

2.5.4. Promotion of Fundamental Rights
It is the State's obligation to refrain from violating individual rights such as freedom of expression, freedom to own private property, freedom to come and go, freedom to petition the government, freedom to vote and be voted, contractual freedom, freedom of association for peaceful ends, philosophical, creedal and religious freedom, political freedom, and any and all other traditional freedoms of Western Judeo-Christian democracy.

It is also the duty of the State to promote access to basic goods, such as education, health, sanitation, water, energy and security to all citizens within it's possibilities, without restricting the core of other citizens' individual rights and always favoring market-based instruments to achieve these intended purposes.

2.5.5. Broad Principle of Security
A Democratic State of Law aims to promote security for its citizen, in the broadest possible view, in both it's legal and political as well as police aspects.

The good citizen does not tolerate violence and fear. The primary function of a state is the protection of its subjects. For this to happen in full, it is necessary [to have] rigid criminal legislation with serious execution of criminal law and the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility so that every individual is held accountable for the misdeeds they practice.

It also requires the valorization of the state polices[8], [and] the integration of all forces in the fight against organized crime, with special investiment in investigative methods. We are against the demilitarization of the Military Police[9].

The citizens' right to self-defense is a prerequisite of a political system that promotes the individual's liberty. PATRIOT has as it's objective to guarantee and, subsequently, maintain the right of brazilians to bear and keep firearms[10].

As for external lack of security, it is essential that the Brazilian Armed Forces be well equipped, with decent wages and a large contingent to guarantee national sovereignty and fight the trafficking of arms, drugs and people. Immigrants must have their history researched prior to granting them asylum or citizenship[11].

PATRIOTA defends a peaceful, orderly and free society, with full security for citizens against internal and external enemies.

2.6. Formal Equality before the Law
The principle of isonomy must be understood in its original view, so that the State must respect rights and not promote privileges, there being no distinction of color, ethnicity, sex, socioeconomic class, sexual option, religious or political creed or of any other nature.

PATRIOTA rejects the idea of material equality, the basis of the socialist creed, which destroys the human being's individuality, morally justifies collective theft and brings about the reduction of productivity, misery and economic imbalance for the whole of society, engaging, as far as possible, in the promotion of public policies that can ensure that the less fortunate have satisfactory conditions for the exercise of self-development.

2.7. Free Market
In theory and practice, the free market has proven to be the best instrument to fight poverty, having been responsible during the last 250 years for the greatest social evolution in human history, bringing about levels of prosperity and consumption never seen before.

The market mechanism is the best way to promote the production of goods and services, as it encourages economic agents to mass produce for the purpose of profit.

It is also the mechanism that better distributes goods and services, since the information about consumer needs, dispersed in society, are better recognized through the decentralized method via entrepreneurs, typical of the market, than through the centralized method via bureaucrats, typical of the State.

Brazil is a country marked by excessive state intervention in the market, which distorts the incentives and the capture of information for a better production and distribution of goods and services.

PATRIOTA seeks to change this model based on the following assumptions: (i) private ownership of the means of production; (ii) state regulation of the use of the exercise [sic] of these means only to protect the life, property and freedom of others; (iii) natural laws of scarcity, utility and freedom of supply and demand as parameters for price determination; (iv) full free competition; (v) the right to profit and private responsibility for losses; (vi) free trade with the outside[12]; (vii) a secure monetary system; and (viii) stimulating the promotion of essential goods through the market system; among others[13].

2.8. Sustainability [14]
PATRIOTA believes in society as a pact between the living, the dead and those who are still going to be born. That said, the love of home and the responsibility to leave it as a legacy for the next generations serves precisely the ecological cause.

We repudiate, however, the hysteria propagated by the obscuring of the environmental cause by ideologies that seek to subvert the order established by the West's values, national sovereignty and the development promoted by free enterprise. In this way, we refuse solutions that seek to abolish the free market.

PATRIOTA will be governed by the promotion of positive incentives with the purpose of adjusting our personal demands giving greater efficiency and effectiveness to the use of the finite resources available in our territory, generating sustainability in the use of nature's goods in the long term.

PATRIOTA aims to defend sustainability in the economy, health, education, security, production, fauna and flora, through the political action of it's representatives, safeguarding national sovereingty and the democratic regime.

2.9. Efficiency in Public Management
The Brazilian public administration is a real chaos, with rampant debts, lack of fiscal responsibility, terrible economic incentives and excessive state competencies. Efficiency in public management is essential to promote, with the lowest expenditure, the maximum amount of goods and fundamental rights for the full development of the citizenship[15] and the freedom of the Brazilian.

To this end, PATRIOTA seeks to implement a public management agenda with the following principles: true fiscal austerity with a zero nominal deficit; creation of effective mechanisms of fiscal responsibility over the administrator; reduction of bureaucracy and simplification of administrative procedures; prioritize the extinction of public debt to increase national savings and investments; to reduce state powers by delegating them to the private sector and focusing only on essential services; encourage the use of the market for the promotion of essential services, such as education, health, and security, with financial support to those most in need; target plans[16] and the application of market instruments, such as meritocracy and personal responsibility, within the services provided directly by the State; and encouraging participation and monitoring of public management by civil society; among others.

2.10. Citizenship an Fraternity[15]
Citizenship is also a priority for PATRIOTA. This is a full concept that involves the civil and political rights of the individual before the State, but not only to vote and let rulers do what they want over four years in office. Citizenship means participation in the daily political life of the city, of the State and of Brazil. To facilitate the real participation of the citizen, it's necessary to have a true federalism. Concentrating the functions of government in the municipality and even the neighborhood is a goal to be pursued. Public management with citizenship passes through the approval of the content of essential services, by providing information to the public agency about the needs of a given locality and by the real-time oversight of the government by the citizen.

PATRIOTA understands the state's limitations in achieving various purposes listed in the Constitution of Brazil, which has many attributes and few resources to provide them satisfactorily[17].

Given that the list of state powers is not exhaustive, making room for new needs according to technological developments, in addition to the fact that human desires are infinite while public goods are not, the partnership of the state with sectors of society dedicated to charity is essential to the full realization of the ends of the nation.

Therefore, PATRIOTA advocates the logistical and bureaucratic support so that individuals, businesses, nongovernmental organizations and the third sector can act in the provision of charitable services for the benefit of the needy, avoiding, as far as possible, the use of public public resources, subject to distorting the intended social aims and creating personal favors, embezzlement and corruption.

FOR A PATRIOT BRAZIL
The creation of PATRIOTA and the dissemination of its ideas, briefly reunited in this partisan program, is just the beginning of a long journey towards a fairer, safer, more prosperous, free and solidary Brazil. It will not be an easy fight, but no battle worth fighting usually is. The country has lived through a history of state intervention, bureaucracy, high tax burden, wasteful spending, corruption, personal favors, violence and socio-economic underdevelopment. The break with such practices will take us time and dedication.

It is extremely important that these ideas are not restricted to the political debate only. Take them to your neighborhood, your street, your family, your club, your school or college, your city's radio, and even your local administrative authority. It's from the mass dissemination of this PATRIOTA way of thinking that we can ocupy political spaces and change the country.

With this, you can hit your chest[18] to say you were directly responsible for the creation of a PATRIOTA way of doing politics, leaving for future generations a legacy that is worth being proud of.

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[1]The word is patria, it can be homeland, fatherland, etc, but since the english translation of our anthem uses homeland for patria, I'll use it here too
[2]Maybe fulfilling might be a bettter world, basically real, deep, serious relations.
[3]Or "from the very heart"
[4]The dead, ancestors, founding fathers
[5]"Produce" as in "are productive members of society"
[6]The portuguese/latin/roman law equivalent of the english "rule of law", the german Rechsstaat.
[7]Google sometimes translates it as devolution.
[8]Our main police forces are state-based and under the authority of the states' governments. There are two forces: the military police (the one that patrols the streets, fights criminals, etc, the uniformed police; a gendarmerie) and the civil police (the investigative, judicial, plain clothes police); there's also a federal police (a civillian federal law enforcement agency), highway/railway police forces (both state and federal), a public security force (mainly state police members who get trained together from time to time and are called to help in a state if the situation gets too hard for the local police), and municipal guards (originally just protected public statues and such, but are increasingly getting police status, guns, training, etc; not every city has its own municipal guard).
[9]A proposal leftists usually defend. The military police are reserve forces of the armed forces, they have military ranks (from soldier to colonel), and they follow military law (i.e. they get tried in military tribunals for some crimes, they can't unionize - their main reason for supporting it, I think -, they can't go on strike -strikes are constant for every public service where unions exist, and unions are mostly marxist arms of left-wing political parties-, etc). The local police has traditionally had this military character, and before the Vargas dictatorship they even had access to weapons and equipment (airplanes, tanks) as good as those of the armed forces IIRC, but Vargas took this power from them to avoid rebellions by state governments against his rule, and the military government put restrictions on the guns they can use (basically they must be worse than the ones the army uses), and the civillian (mainly different shades of red) governments since them didn't help them get better weapons at all. Most proposals to "demilitarize" the military police also include turning them all into a single national police force (presumably under the command of the president, going against federalism).
[10]FHC started gun control measures to "fight violence" (nothing got better since then) and Lula de facto took our guns (may issue with completely arbitrary rules, where even if you fulfill every ridiculous prerequisite they give you to own guns, your local federal police officer can just deny you this right because he doesn't like you; also there's no right to carry arms at all, and there are ridiculous restrictions, I'll annex our current rules here too), even after losing the 2005 referendum to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition in the country by 63.94% vs 26.96% of the votes, losing in every single state, even with foreign NGOs, the vast majority of artists, tv channels, newspapers and even the catholic church defending the proposed ban.
[11]He opposes the open border proposals coming out of congress, recently, like a new migration law proposed by a PSDB senator and approved with overwhelming support by the entire establishment, including PT and PMDB, but whose worst parts were vetoed by president Temer after strong pressure by right-wing groups (one even was slandered by Al-Jazeera as "fascists"), the federal police, armed forces and institutional security cabinet (the one in charge of our intelligence services)
[12]In general Bolsonaro has shown preference for bilateral trade deals, but it's not fully on his hands to decide this, and it's unlikely (I think) that he'll leave multilateral organizations like Mercosur (heavily criticised by Brazil's free-marketers, and that he talked about leaving before). He's also said he wants closer ties with the likes of the US, Europe, Israel, South Korea and Japan (our traditional partners + rich asians) instead of Cuba, Venezuela and so on (that PT governments preferred) and very much anti-Chinese influence, besides not being a doctrinaire (i.e. he is generally for free trade, and our market is far too closed for our own good, but that doesn't mean he'll sign anything that's called free-trade or that he thinks is too one-sided), so I suppose he'll not act like a Ron Paul, if he wins, but more like a pragmatic. I don't recall hearing him speak about increasing tariffs (ours are quite high already) or putting more protectionism measures in place, for ex (he voted in favor of market-opening measures before), but I want to be clear that he is not ideological about it. When it comes to deburocratization and flexibilizing labor laws and regulations, he's been generally quite in favor of it, especially in mining (he's somewhat obsessed with mining) and farming. When it comes to privatization, he was historically against it (or at least against selling companies at a low price), but in the last years, especially after the Petrolão scandal, he has been more and more in favor of privatizating "as many companies as possible", with one addendum: He is not in favor of selling brazilian state companies to chinese (state) companies, which is what is currently being done.
[13]Based on who likely wrote this (a guy who formerly created a libertarian party and is quite austrian in his economic views), don't understand this to mean stimulus packages or something, but a preference for promoting access to health, education etc via the market, not via the state (with policies like vouchers or tax cuts, etc). He has also admitted he doesn't understand much about economics, and is trying to learn (not only is he talking with economists, usually pro-market, but one of his sons, a federal deputy himself, for ex, is currently completing a postgraduate -not masters or doctor, more like a specialization, dunno if that's how you talk about it in english- degree in Austrian Economics, and said he wants to study it further).
[14] PATRIOTA is a refounding of the National Ecologic Party, a very party created by a low-profile politician -currently a municipal representative in a city with 30000 people- to defend ecological causes, because he was a social conservative (and evangelical too) who grew up as a sugar-cane cutter before joining politics and thought "green" parties were too radical for him. The party is quite small an is generally social conservative, and otherwise quite average (it wasn't a strongly right-wing party on most themes, but it wasn't leftist), although some of it's members were formally members of a small nationalist party (PRONA). Understand this section as a way to keep some continuity with the former party and it's founder priorities, but making sure this is more of a Roger Scrutton type support for envinronmental issues than a "green" one (Bolsonaro for ex has been usually a strong supporter of softening environmental restrictions that he thinks restrict national development). The party is still in the process of being refounded (it was announced this year), and we had cases of politicians in some far-flung states saying they'd ally with PT for example, but the federal party is kicking out people who do this (which is banned by their statute anyway, and is one of the reasons why Bolsonaro left his former party, PSC, that allied with communists in a northeastern state), and it's president and creator is fully supporting Bolsonaro and people close to him in this endeavor (he barely joined it and already has a lot of authority, as do his allies and sons in the states where they live), and the party is expected to atract many members, especially young people (Bolsonaro's strongest demographic group), just as it had happened with PSC before that, so that effective control of the party is likely to happen soon, although some less right-wing, more opportunistic members in some far-away cities or states might still do something against the party program, and then be kicked out.
[15]In the civic-republican sense, public participation in politics, governance, etc.
[16]Plano de metas.
[17]It's a social-democratic constitution with a bunch of "social rights" and things the state must provide to the people, yet never really did in a satisfactory way, because even without corruption it didn't have enough to do all it promises, especially now that our fiscal situation is dire.
[18]Or beat your chest. Bater no peito. It's a sign of being proud.

Security here is generally referring to public security, as in being safe against murder, theft, etc.