Entre a burocracia e a profissão: o Poder Judiciário e seus magistrados na história constitucional brasileira

In order to understand the current Brazilian judiciary, this article presents a sociological interpretation of the meaning of its constitutional and infra-constitutional order throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, translating, at the level of legal dispute, the spectrum of possibilities constructed by two ideal types of work organization: bureaucracy and profession. Our hypothesis is that the Brazilian judicial branch has been constructed through bureaucratic and professional elements throughout its process of institutionalization and differentiation in relation to the political sphere. Given the influence of history on the occupational development of legal careers, we infer that the political behavior of the current Brazilian judiciary derives – largely – ​​from the limitations posed by the very process of bureaucratization of the career. In this sense, we argue that the national judiciary has moved towards increasing its impersonality in the face of personalized relationships and professionalism in the face of bureaucracy: we explore an initial process of structural differentiation of the judicial branch, separating it from ordinary politics and segmenting it internally, and then point out the emerging dialogue of judges with political actors through their professional associations.