This article examines popular participation in the making of Brazil's 1988 post-authoritarian “Citizen Constitution.” In 1987, Brazilians submitted 122 popular amendments (emendas populares) supported by over 12 million signatures to the National Constituent Assembly (1987–88). As this article contends, this extraordinary experiment in popular constitution-making problematizes notions of Brazil's transition from authoritarian to democratic rule as the most conservative of those that swept Latin America at the end of the Cold War. The popular amendments emerged amid a nationwide campaign for popular participation that saw millions of Brazilians participate in letter-writing campaigns, protests, and debates over the constitution that carried over into the halls of the Constituent Assembly itself. I argue that the popular amendments countered the arbitrary authoritarianism of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964–85) with a constitutionalism in which everyday Brazilians would safeguard democracy through popular participation in government. While only partially consolidated, this vision offered diverse marginalized groups an opportunity to claim full citizenship in Brazil's nascent democracy, especially in ways that more overtly addressed issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability. This article thus shows that far from being the exclusive province of political elites, everyday people meaningfully shaped the constitutional restorations in late twentieth-century Latin America.

本文考察了巴西 1988 年后威权主义“公民宪法”制定过程中民众的参与。1987年，巴西人提交了122项民意修正案（emendas Populares）) 得到了全国制宪议会超过 1200 万个签名的支持（1987-88 年）。正如本文所主张的那样，这一在大众制宪方面的非凡实验将巴西从威权统治向民主统治过渡的观念质疑为冷战结束时席卷拉丁美洲的最保守的观念。民众参与的全国性运动中出现了民众的修正案，数以百万计的巴西人参与了写信运动、抗议和关于宪法的辩论，这些运动一直延续到制宪议会本身的大厅。我认为，民众的修正案以宪政主义对抗巴西军民独裁（1964-85 年）的专断专制主义，在宪政主义中，普通巴西人将通过民众参与政府来维护民主。虽然只是部分巩固了这一愿景，但这一愿景为各种边缘化群体提供了在巴西新生的民主国家中获得完全公民身份的机会，尤其是在更公开地解决种族、民族、性别和残疾问题的方式上。因此，本文表明，普通民众远非政治精英的专属领地，而是有意义地塑造了 20 世纪后期拉丁美洲的宪政修复。这一愿景为不同的边缘化群体提供了在巴西新生的民主国家中获得完全公民身份的机会，特别是在更公开地解决种族、民族、性别和残疾问题的方式上。因此，本文表明，普通民众远非政治精英的专属领地，而是有意义地塑造了 20 世纪后期拉丁美洲的宪政修复。这一愿景为不同的边缘化群体提供了在巴西新生的民主国家中获得完全公民身份的机会，特别是在更公开地解决种族、民族、性别和残疾问题的方式上。因此，本文表明，普通民众远非政治精英的专属领地，而是有意义地塑造了 20 世纪后期拉丁美洲的宪政修复。