Direito fundamental à seguridade social: fundamentos constitucionais, efetividade e desafios contemporâneos na proteção social brasileira

constitutional foundations, effectiveness, and contemporary challenges in Brazilian social protection

Abstract

This scientific article analyzes the fundamental right to social security in the Brazilian legal system, examining its constitutional foundation, normative structure, structuring principles, and contemporary challenges in the realization of social rights. Through an interdisciplinary approach that articulates Constitutional Law, Social Security Law, and Social Work, it investigates the configuration of social security as a second-dimension fundamental right, inscribed in the paradigm of the Democratic Rule of Law and social constitutionalism. The study examines the constitutional architecture established by articles 194 to 204 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, which instituted an integrated and universalist system of social protection, based on the principles of universal coverage and care, uniformity and equivalence of benefits, selectivity and distributivity, irreducibility of benefit values, equity in the form of financing participation, diversity of the financing base, and the democratic and decentralized character of administration. Through bibliographic research, documentary analysis, and comparative law, it is demonstrated that the right to social security constitutes an essential element of human dignity and an instrument for achieving social justice, requiring positive State actions for its materialization. The historical process of formation of social protection systems is critically analyzed, from European experiences of the 19th century to the contemporary Brazilian constitutional model, highlighting the advances, setbacks, and tensions between universalist and focused paradigms. The work also examines the challenges imposed by transformations in the world of work, population aging, structural reforms, and fiscal limits on social security financing. It concludes with the need to strengthen mechanisms for the realization of social rights, through interpretation in accordance with constitutional principles, constitutional control of restrictive reforms and implementation of public policies that ensure adequate and sufficient social protection for all citizens, especially groups in situations of social vulnerability.