Taxes and tithes: The organizational foundations ofbolsonarismo

Abstract

This article examines three types of organizations – the party, the labor union, and the church – to help explain how right-wing authoritarianism returned to power in Brazil, once the largest social democracy in the Americas. Drawing on four decades of time series data from three government organs and a multi-year qualitative study of political terrain shifts, the author shows that Pentecostal churches eclipsed left-leaning civic organizations as the primary settings in which large segments of the population experienced politics. As the evangelical electorate grew – eventually forming one of the most powerful (albeit heterogeneous) social movements in the country – political and clerical leaders constructed and articulated this new identity around specific projects. In 2018, this project was bolsonarismo, marking a shift away from evangelicals’ historic support for lulismo. The implication of this argument is that even in an age of diffuse media, atomized protest, and fragmented party systems, the political labor of group-making that happens inside organizations can critically affect the conditions that give rise to (or protect against) illiberal politics.

Placing the peripheries within Brazil’s rightward turn: Socio-spatial transformation and electoral realignment, 2002–2018

“…McKenna (2020) notes two important and counterposed trends in this regard. Firstly, there has been a major decline in trade union membership and influence, resulting from both long-term deindustrialisation and labour precaritisation and attacks on trade union funding and organisation since 2016.…”

Violent Affections: Queer sexuality, techniques of power, and law in Russia

“…Trump's rhetoric publicly espoused ugly sentiments such as fear and hate, as well as feeding on myriad conspiracy theories, memes and the misuse of social media to disseminate unsubstantiated information more generally -all resulting in incidents of both online and offline violence, as studies suggest (Keener 2019;Kelley-Romano and Carew 2019). These themes clearly mirror the situation in Russia that I have analysed throughout the book, and can also be found in places as diverse as Brazil, with its openly homophobic president Jair Bolsonaro; Ghana, where anti-queer sentiment in 2021 resulted in a reform that seeks to increase prison sentences to 10 years for homosexual practices and LGBT+ rights advocacy; and Hungary, which recently passed its own 'gay propaganda' law -an example of how the legal meme continues to resonate widely, now in other national contexts (Kováts and Petõ 2017;McKenna 2020;Wahab 2021, 854;Akinwotu 2021;Walker 2021). 1 Many analyses of the described phenomena centre on the idea of rhetorical manipulation, suggesting that politicians or their speech writers know exactly what they are doing.…”

Covid-19 Through Brazilian Courts: The Deserving and the Undeserving Vulnerable

“…93 The government stance towards labor liberalization-which had already destabilized unionswas repeated with COVID-19. 94 In an emergency decree to regulate labor relations in the pandemic, converted in July in Act 14.020, the legal prohibition of salary reduction has been relaxed to sustain the economy. 95 A complaint was submitted to argue that the unconstitutionality of this measure by the STF only suspended the effect of these norms to ensure that workplace inspections stay in operation and repeal a liability waiver for occupational diseases contracted in the pandemic.…”