Authoritarian Populism as a Response to Crisis: The Case of Brazil

Abstract

This article demonstrates that the authoritarian populist strategy is most appealing when leaders create a sense of crisis and present themselves as having the only solution. The article underlines three performative methods of how Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil offered simple answers for a crisis and portrayed other political actors as the responsible ones to be removed. Firstly, nativism presents a conservative view on how politics should be structured by perceiving all “non-natives” as threatening. Secondly, messianism, the fetishism of Bolsonaro as a “messiah” who leads the way in the battle between “good” and “evil,” serves to reinforce the support of the Evangelist base against “PT members.” Finally, conspiracism provides an easy way to eradicate ambiguities and helps to fuel an antagonism against the “enemy.”

Populist Authoritarianism and Catholic Political Ethics: A Framework for a Moral Review

“…In authoritarian populist regimes, leaders typically portray themselves as the sole representatives of "the people" and claim to speak on behalf of the majority against perceived elites or enemies of the nation. They often use populist rhetoric to control the population, mobilize support, appeal to the grievances and frustrations of ordinary citizens, and promise to address their concerns (Akgemci 2022). Authoritarian populist leaders tend to concentrate power in their own hands, undermine democratic institutions and norms, and suppress any dissent against their authority.…”

¿Una segunda transición?: populismo y militarismo en América Latina

“…Más contemporáneamente, Inglehart y Norris explicaron el fenómeno Trump como una reacción cultural "en reversa" (2017), vertida en liderazgos y partidos que respondían al "populismo autoritario" (Hall, 1980), advirtiendo el descontento contra las elites políticas, expresado tanto en la derecha radical y populista, como en una izquierda que demanda el cambio sistémico ante la inequidad estructural. En la región, el concepto es útil en la descripción de la crisis de confianza ante la corrupción que derivó en Brasil a la adhesión a un programa populista con rasgos autoritarios e impronta castrense del capitán (R) Jair Bolsonaro (Akgemci, 2022;Zanotti y Roberts, 2021).…”