Bolsonaro’s Brazil: A democracy under stress

Abstract

The social resentment expressed in the June 2013 Journeys, resulting from frustrated expectations of ascending social sectors (who saw their progress stalled) and of higher layers in the social stratification (who lost their distinction), gave rise to anti-political affections. These, in turn, have fueled anti-party and anti-system sentiment conducive to the electoral success of outsiders and marginal politicians. In this context, several outsiders became mayors in the 2016 municipal elections, and Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency in 2018. His movement-government was characterized by extremist populism with a religious, exclusionary, and anti-pluralist background. This populism mobilized support for an abnormal government, which defies conventional institutionalist analysis as it undermines the existing framework instead of accepting it as given. This approach led to institutional stress, as the repeated attack on other branches of power (especially the Judiciary) triggered hyperactivity within the institutions, generating a populist trap that undermined the legitimacy of institutions.