This paper proposes a reflection on a central characteristic of modern State and modern democracy: the Estado de Direito - or rule of law - considering empirical elements of the social and political context of the state of Acre. More specifically, we indicate and analyze several situations that occurred in this state, during the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, in order to understand how dimensions of the rule of law could be described and observed in the empirical reality. The hypothesis which we work with is that only at the end of the 1990's a "pretension to the rule of law" emerges in Acre, what indicates a general disposition to implement the "rule of law" as a universal political rule.
Estado de Direito; Rule of Law; Violence; Organized Crime