Why the Far Right is Gaining Popular Support and Electoral Expression in Brazil
Flavia Pellegrino is the Executive Coordinator of the Pact for Democracy, a coalition of more than 200 civil society organizations that, since 2018, has coordinated the efforts of social actors across the ideological spectrum to increase the capacity of civil society to defend and reinvigorate democracy in Brazil. This article was written for the 112th edition of the WBO weekly newsletter, published on April 12, 2024. To subscribe to the newsletter and receive it for free, enter your email in the indicated field.
The results of the first round of the 2024 Brazilian municipal elections, held on October 6, point to a scenario that has been predicted and feared since anti-democratic political forces have intensified their influence in the country over the last decade. The election revealed significant political and electoral traction by the far right and its orbiting camp and was once again the scene of methods characteristic of this side of the political spectrum: systematic disinformation campaigns, political violence, and hostility towards the Brazilian voting system.
The far right continues to be, without a doubt, a growing and mobilizing political force in Brazil. Its rise is among the elements that shape the country's numerous democratic challenges today, although it is not the only one. The roots of the cracks in democracies are deeper, both nationally and internationally.
Here in Brazil, the current process of democratic erosion has been underway for at least a decade. Globally, it can be traced back even further, to 2007, when worldwide indicators on the quality of democracies began to point to the phenomenon of a decline in democratic regimes across the planet.
In its latest report, the V-DEM (Varieties of Democracies) Institute revealed that the level of democracy enjoyed around the world in 2023 returned to 1985 levels. According to the index, 71% of the world's population – 5.7 billion people – live in autocracies, which represents a 48% increase compared to ten years ago. The report also showed that 42 countries are currently undergoing continuous episodes of autocratization; 20 years ago, there were 11. Furthermore, only 18 countries are democratizing, compared to 35 countries 20 years ago.
In the Brazilian case, the driving force behind this phenomenon lies fundamentally in the emergence of a process of complete rejection of national politics, its actors and its institutions, based on an amalgam of widespread indignation that ended up culminating in a kind of challenge to Brazilian democracy itself.
“Jair Bolsonaro, therefore, was not the cause, but rather the symptom of this process of democratic recession and fragility in Brazil”
Flavia Pellegrino is the Executive Coordinator of the Pact for Democracy
The resounding anti-system sentiment that has been in force in Brazil since 2013 is precisely what gives shape and content to the political cycle we are experiencing today and is the phenomenon that primarily fuels the process of democratic erosion that has marked the country over the last decade. Such anti-system momentum was, therefore, in 2018, the guiding thread that led a majority of the voting population to elect the far-right candidate who best catalyzed and mobilized such dissatisfaction and whose political project aimed precisely at imploding the current system. Jair Bolsonaro, therefore, was not the cause, but rather the symptom of this process of democratic recession and fragility in Brazil.
The social and political dissatisfaction that gives rise to such rejection is absolutely legitimate in a country marked by one of the highest levels of inequality on the planet, where basic rights have never been accessible and effective for a significant portion of the population, where multiple forms of violence prevail throughout the national territory, and where the political system is blatantly flawed in terms of representation. In the absence of more refined formulations, discontent regarding living conditions and quality of life tends to be commonly attributed to the democratic regime itself, causing the urgent and legitimate desire for change to fall directly and dangerously on the democracy that should be providing benefits that have never materialized.
Although the diagnosis of the inadequacy of the delivery of the Brazilian democratic regime is real, the paradoxes of the ways to address it are diverse; the first and most important being the fact that democracies are the types of systems that conceptually, empirically and historically allow for social and political constructions aimed at advancing and guaranteeing the rights and freedoms so desired. The solution would lie in improving and deepening democracy, not in destroying it.
A certain inversion of roles between actors within the political spectrum in this scenario is also notable. Throughout history, it has been the sectors linked to the democratic struggle – and especially the progressive camp – that have always been identified with the movements for transformation, change, or even revolution in the country's political realities. Today, however, in a context in which democracies are under threat and in clear recession, their defenders end up assuming the label of “conservatives,” those who wish to preserve the system, even though they call for and work for structural transformations. After all, preserving, defending, and deepening the democratic structure of a country is not, in any way, defending or condoning the status quo.
Amid the current political-ideological imbroglio, the Brazilian case also brings another important element: the assessment that the far right in the country managed to gain such ground due to the extinction of a truly democratic right. Leaderships and political parties marked by patronage and opportunism, driven mostly by their own interests, legitimize and strengthen the existence, practices, values, and ideas of the far right. This occurs both in the most ordinary political constructions and disputes, as well as in the articulations and negotiations that take place within democratic institutions today, especially in the national legislature.
Autocrats do not destroy a democracy alone. They invariably need allies – especially traditional political leaders with political clout – who will support, legitimize and protect them. To prevent the extreme right from continuing to prosper and carry out its anti-democratic project in Brazil, one of the most important steps is to reconstitute a right-wing camp that is unequivocally and essentially committed to democratic ideals, values and practices, willing to draw a boundary that effectively isolates what and who represents a risk to democracy.
