A Questão Democrática

Abstract

What is the position of Marxists on elections promoted by bourgeois democracy? This question certainly does not have a single answer. There is a long-standing debate on this subject, with understandings and positions varying from era to era, from one situation to another. This article analyzes a specific historical case: the participation of Brazilian Marxist organizations in the 1960 presidential election. While militants of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCB) supported the candidacies of Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott and João Goulart, communists from other organizations, such as the Revolutionary Workers' Party (POR) and the Independent Socialist League (LSI), opted to cast blank ballots as a form of protest against all the candidates presented in the election.