POPULISM IN BRAZIL (1985–2019): AN OLD CONCEPT FROM A NEW APPROACH

Abstract

The concept of populism has been criticized in Brazilian social sciences in the last two decades. In this article, we rescue its importance to answer the following question: how populist are Brazilian presidents? In line with the ideational approach, we define populism as a dispute between two homogeneous and antagonistic groups: a “pure people” and a “corrupt elite”. In this context, we used mixed methods to classify 5,823 official statements by presidents from José Sarney to Jair Bolsonaro (1985/2019). The results point to the identification of three populist presidents in the new republic: Collor, Lula and Bolsonaro. Finally, we discuss the differences between the three and affirm that, in Brazil, populism is not, in itself, a threat to democracy.