The democratization process in Brazil occurred in a manner quite different from that experienced by other countries like USA and France. In this sense, the objective of this theoretical essay is to present the core elements of democracy and citizenship, and demonstrate how the historic formation of the Brazilian state boosted the strength of a "stateship" at the expense of national citizenship. It was demonstrated that the formation of the Brazilian state is an obstacle to the consolidation of civic culture, because it can not develop social rights, political and civil as presented by Marshall. Thus, we can see is that the exercise of democracy is not an easy task, but for a nation to evolve in terms of effective participation of citizens, they have to participate in the process. In Brazil, there is prevalence of actions that give more power to the State as responsible for structuring and development of social life. So prevalent in our nation "stateship", since the absence of a civic culture, while the non-state actors a facilitating role in the process. Moreover, changes related to democratization more effective state and the democratization of democracy itself are necessary.
"stateship"; democracy; the formation of the Brazilian state