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

Yıl 2022, , 37 - 51, 02.06.2022

Esra Akgemci

https://doi.org/10.33458/uidergisi.1113367

Cited By: 5

Öz

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.”

Anahtar Kelimeler

Bolsonaro, performance of crisis, nativism, messianism, conspiracism

Krize Yanıt olarak Otoriter Popülizm: Brezilya Örneği

Öz

Bu makale, liderlerin bir kriz hissi yaratmayı başardıkları ve kendilerini krizi çözebilecek tek kişi olarak ortaya koyabildikleri durumlarda otoriter popülist stratejilerin daha etkin olduğunu göstermeyi amaçlamaktadır. Makale, Brezilya’da Jair Bolsonaro’nun krizleri çözmek için basit çözümler sunmasını ve diğer politik aktörleri ortadan kaldırılması gereken suçlular olarak göstermesini sağlayan üç temel stratejiye işaret etmektedir. Öncelikle, yerelcilik, “yerel olmayan” herkesi ve her şeyi tehdit olarak algılayarak siyasetin nasıl yapılandırılması gerektiğine dair muhafazakâr bir görüş sunmaktadır. İkinci olarak, Bolsonaro’nun “iyi” ve “kötü” arasındaki savaşta yol gösterici bir “Mesih” olarak öne çıkmasıyla gelişen, lider-fetişizmine dayanan Mesih inancı, İşçi Partisi destekçilerine karşı Evanjelist tabanın desteğini güçlendirmeye yaramaktadır. Son olarak, komploculuk, belirsizlikleri ortadan kaldırmak için kolay bir yol göstermekte ve antagonizmi körüklemeye yardımcı olmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Bolsonaro, kriz performansı, yerelcilik, Mesih inancı, komploculuk

Kaynakça

• Araújo, Ernesto (2019). “Now We Do”, The New Criterion, Vol. 37, No 5, https://newcriterion.com/issues/2019/1/nowwe-do (Accessed 20 May 2021).
• Balta, Evren, et al. (2021). “Populist Attitudes and Conspiratorial Thinking”, Forthcoming at Party Politics, (Pre-copy-edited version), p. 1-38.
• Bergmann, Eirikur (2020). Neo-Nationalism: The Rise of Nativist Populism. Cham, Springer Nature.
• Brittain, Christopher Craig (2021). “Donald Trump and the Stigmata of Democracy: Adorno and the Consolidation of a Religious Racket”, Jeremiah Morelock (ed.), How to Critique Authoritarian Populism. Leiden/Boston, Brill, p. 366-390.
• Bruff, Ian (2014). “The Rise of Authoritarian Neoliberalism”, Rethinking Marxism, Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 113–129.
• Buarque, Beatriz (10 March 2021). “How Brazil’s Far-Right ‘Active Knowledge’ Industry Supports Jair Bolsonaro”, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-far-right-knowledge-industry-en/ (Accessed 20 May 2021).
• Carneiro, Maria Luiza Tucci (2018). “Imigrantes Indesejáveis: A Ideologia do Etiquetamento durante a Era Vargas”, Revista USP, No 119, p 115-130.
• Cosentino, Gabriele (2020). Social Media and the Post-Truth World Order: The Global Dynamics of Misinformation. Cham, Palgrave Pivot.
• Da Silva, Mayra Goulart, and Theófilo Codeço Machado Rodrigues (2021). “O populismo de direita no Brasil: neoliberalismo e autoritarismo no governo Bolsonaro”, Mediações-Revista de Ciências Sociais, Vol. 26, No 1, p. 86-107.
• De Paula, Claudio Paixão Anastácio et al. (2020). “Comunicação, Informação e Imaginário no Processo Eleitoral Brasileiro: o ‘Messias’ Bolsonaro e o Mito do Rei pela Graça de Deus”, Prisma. com, No 41, p. 100-122.
• De Oliveira, Bruna Silveira and Rousiley Celi Moreira Maia (2020). “REDES BOLSONARISTAS: O Ataque ao Politicamente Correto e Conexões com o Populismo Autoritário”, Confluências| Revista Interdisciplinar de Sociologia e Direito, Vol. 22, No 3, p. 83-114.
• Deutsch, Sandra McGee (1999). Las Derechas: The Extreme Right in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, 1890-1939. Stanford, Stanford University Press.
• Dias, João Ferreira (2020). “O Messias já Chegou e Livrará “As pessoas de Bem” dos Corruptos: Messianismo Político e Legitimação Popular, os Casos Bolsonaro e André Ventura”, Police, No 2, p. 49-60.
• Filomeno, Felipe A., and Thomas J. Vicino (2020). “The Evolution of Authoritarianism and Restrictionism in Brazilian Immigration Policy: Jair Bolsonaro in Historical Perspective”, Bulletin of Latin American Research, 15 September, DOI- 10.1111/blar.13166, p. 1-15.
• Hall, Stuart (1980). “Popular Democratic vs. Authoritarian Populism: Two Ways of Taking Democracy Seriously”, Alan Hunt (ed.), Marxism and Democracy. London and New Jersey, Lawrence and Wishart, p. 157-185.
• Hall, Stuart (1988). The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left. London and New York, Verso. Hall, Stuart (1994). “Some ‘Politically Incorrect’ Pathways through PC”, Sarah Dunant (ed.), The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate. London, Virago, p. 164-183.
• Hall, Stuart, et al. (1978). Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order. London and Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Heer, Jeet (2022). “Trump’s Racism and the Myth of ‘Cultural Marxism,’” The New Republic, 15 August, https://newrepublic. com/article/144317/trumps-racism-myth-cultural-marxism (Accessed 3 February 2022).
• “Jair Bolsonaro: Brazil’s New Far-right President Urges Unity,” (2019). BBC, 1 January, https://www.bbc.com/news/worldlatin-america-46720899 (Accessed 20 May 2021). Jamin, Jérôme (2018). “Cultural Marxism: A Survey”, Religion Compass, Vol. 12, No 1-2, p. 1-12.
• Jessop, Bop et al. (1984). “Authoritarian Populism, Two Nations, and Thatcherism”, New Left Review, Vol. 147, No 1, p. 32-60.
• Junior, Aryovaldo de Castro Azevedo and Erica Cristina Verderio Bianco (2019). “O Processo de Mitificação de Bolsonaro: Messias, Presidente do Brasil”, Revista ECO-Pós, Vol. 22, No 2, p. 88-111.
• Marzouki, Nadia, Duncan McDonnell and Olivier Roy (eds.) (2016). Saving the People: How Populists Hijack Religion. London, Hurst&Company.
• Mazui, Guilherme et al. (3 May 2019). “Ministro Compara Bolsonaro a Jesus ao Chamar Presidente de ‘Pedra Angular’ do ‘Novo Brasil’”, Globo, https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/05/03/ministro-compara-bolsonaro-a-jesusao-chamar-presidente-de-pedra-angular-do-novo-brasil.ghtml (Accessed: 12 May 2020).
• Mirrlees, Tanner (2018). “The Alt-right’s Discourse on ‘Cultural Marxism’: A Political Instrument of Intersectional Hate”, Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, Vol. 39, No 1, p. 49-69.
• Moffitt, Benjamin (2015). “How to Perform Crisis: A Model for Understanding the Key Role of Crisis in Contemporary Populism”, Government and Opposition, Vol. 50, No 2, p. 189-217.
• Morelock, Jeremiah, and Felipe Ziotti Narita (2021). “A Dialectical Constellation of Authoritarian Populism in the United States and Brazil”, Jeremiah Morelock (ed.), How to Critique Authoritarian Populism. Leiden/Boston, Brill, p. 85-107.
• Mudde, Cas (2010). “The Populist Radical Right: A Pathological Normalcy”, West European Politics, Vol. 33, No 6, p. 1167-1186. Mudde, Cas and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser (2017). Populism: A very Short Introduction. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
• Neto, Moysés Pinto and Marcelli Cipriani (2021). “Populismo Autoritário e Bolsonarismo Popular: Caminhos Comparados do Punitivismo a Partir de Stuart Hall”, Revista de Criminologias Contemporâneas, Vol. 1, No 1, p. 41-56.
• Norris, Pippa and Roland Inglehart (2019). Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit, and Authoritarian Populism. New York, Cambridge University Press.
• Pinho de Oliveira, Maria Fatima (2019). “¿Sacralización Política o Mesianismo? Los Liderazgos Políticos de Néstor Kirchner, Hugo Chávez, Donald Trump y Jair Bolsonaro”, Tla-Melaua. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, No 47, p. 322-342.
• Ricz, Judit, (2017) “The rise and fall (?) of a new developmental state in Brazil”, Society and Economy, Vol. 39, No 1, p. 85-108.
• Rocha, Daniel (2020). “‘Faça-se na Terra um Pedaço do Céu’: Perspectivas Messiânicas na Participação dos Pentecostais na Política Brasileira”, Perspectiva Teológica, Vol. 52, No 3, p. 607-607.
• Rogenhofer, Julius Maximilian and Ayala Panievsky (2020). “Antidemocratic Populism in Power: Comparing Erdoğan’s Turkey with Modi’s India and Netanyahu’s Israel”, Democratization, Vol. 27, No 8, p. 1394-1412.
• Sanchez, Wagner Lopes and Glair Alonso Arruda (2020). “Novas Faces do Cristofascismo no Governo de Jair Bolsonaro”, Revista eclesiástica Brasileira, Vol. 80, No 316, p. 353-372.
• Seckinger, Ron L. (1975). “The Politics of Nativism: Ethnic Prejudice and Political Power in Mato Grosso, 1831-1834”, The Americas, Vol. 31, No 4, p. 393-416.
• Shamsuddin, Mrittika, et al. (2021). “Integration of Venezuelan Refugees and Migrants in Brazil”, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, No 9605, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/35358/Integration-ofVenezuelan-Refugees-and-Migrants-in-Brazil.pdf?sequence=1 (Accessed 11 May 2021).
• Tamaki, Eduardo Ryo and Mario Fuks (2020). “Populism in Brazil’s 2018 General Elections: An Analysis of Bolsonaro’s Campaign Speeches”, Lua Nova: Revista de Cultura e Política, No 109, p. 103-127.
• Woods, Andrew (16 October 2019). “The Cultural Marxism Conspiracy Thrives in Bolsonaro’s Brazil”, Fair Observer, https://www.fairobserver.com/insight/cultural-marxism-conspiracy-far-right-jair-bolsonaro-brazil-latin-americanews-00054/ (Accessed 20 May 2021).