ELECTIONS PERIOD: SPYING AND THE APPLICATION OF LAW

Abstract

In the field of Sociology, the judicial regulation of political disputes has been denominated as judicialization of politics. Besides that, when laws are used as strategies to disadvantage a political opponent, one can understand that it is characterized as lawfare. Influenced by these themes, in this article I analyze the mobilization of one of the political factions regarding the execution of accusations to the electoral justice, having argued how the laws were used for the political opponents. Based on a reflexive analysis of the field research I have carried outin the course of the election campaign in a small city located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, I checked the spying perpetrated between groups was a central element in this dynamic of lawfare, because provided to collect data in order to formulate the accusations. Above all, I show that the legal war is part of a historical process in which the judiciary was strengthened and that this historical moment raises new questions for anthropology of politics.