Criação, renovação e interrupção de instituições jurídicas: um estudo no campo da cachaça de alambique

Abstract

The field research that gave rise to this thesis had as its starting point the following research problem: how the institutional work carried out by different actors in the field of alembic cachaça in Minas Gerais has contributed to the creation, maintenance and interruption of legal institutions? Therefore, it was based on the ontological and epistemological assumptions of social constructionism and on the theoretical precepts of historical institutionalism and the theory of institutional work. A qualitative research method was also adopted. This method allowed the application of thematic analysis, narrative analysis and legal archeology as techniques for systematizing, interpreting and understanding the institutional work of creating, maintaining and interrupting legal institutions that standardize and condition the collective action experienced by different organizational actors. The historical context of the prohibition of that drink and the stigmatization of its use by less favored classes, in order to discourage its consumption and promote Portuguese wine, delayed the process of institutional change and allowed the legal identity of cachaça to be created only in 2003. In spite of this, in 2001 the protagonism of the institutional work of actors in the state of Minas Gerais contributed to the creation of the legal identity of the handmade cachaça from Minas and to the process of renewing the identity of the alembic cachaça, understood as that produced on a smaller scale, in a copper still, obtained from fresh cane juice, naturally fermented, with the separation of the “tail”, “head” and “heart” fractions, often inspired by the ancestry of production. In the narratives of institutional works, the research revealed a range of actions carried out by the different actors to create the legal institutions of standardization and manufacturing, as well as to maintain the standardization, manufacturing and environmental institutions, renew the tax institutions and also interrupt them when their creation meant an increase in the tax burden for the sector. The institutional work in the field of alembic cachaça in Minas Gerais presents a social dynamic permeated by a political arena of struggles and power relations that involve public and private actors in the defense of interests of two segments: column cachaça and alembic cachaça. The lobbying carried out by both segments is related to the professional performance of putting pressure on the decision making of the parliament and of the federal and state governments through arguments, data, research, technical and scientific studies about the sector and the physical-chemical characteristics of the beverage. Institutional works carried out in coalition were narrated to renew the legal institution of Simples Nacional, change the contaminant and interrupt the increase in the tax burden. Notwithstanding the challenging scenario of disproportionate taxes, requirements for industrial-scale facilities for small producers and unfair competition of informal ones, the works to maintain the legal identity of cachaça and renew the identity of alembic cachaça reaffirms the culture and tradition of production of the drink on Brazilian land and expands the political arena of conflicts, pressure, resistance, political infiltration and new forms of governmental relationships.