Jul 14, 2021 by Michael Bluhm
Is turmoil in Brazil a sign that authoritarian populism is weakening globally? Oliver Stuenkel on the pandemic, the economy, and corruption.
https://www.thesgnl.com/2021/07/bolsonaro-authoritarian-populism-oliver-stuenkel/
Tens of thousands of Brazilians protested in the streets of 40 cities on July 3, voicing their disapproval of President Jair Bolsonaro. One day earlier, Brazil’s highest court had ordered an investigation of Bolsonaro’s involvement in a possibly corrupt deal to import COVID-19 vaccines from India. Bolsonaro—who’s repeatedly railed against homosexuality, endorsed political violence, and lavished praise on the former U.S. president Donald Trump—came to power in 2018, as populists with authoritarian aspirations strengthened their control over democracies around the world, including Jaroslaw Kaczynski in Poland, Narendra Modi in India, Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. Does Bolsonaro’s weakened position show new vulnerabilities in authoritarian populism globally?
According to Oliver Stuenkel, a Brazilian professor of international relations at the Sao Paolo-based Getulio Vargas Foundation, Bolsonaro is on the defensive because of multiple corruption allegations and Brazil’s tattered economy. As Stuenkel sees it, populists worldwide have fumbled their handling of the pandemic; Brazil has the second-highest official death toll from COVID-19 and is on pace to pass the United States. Trump’s failures responding to the pandemic, for example, critically damaged his reelection chances, Stuenkel says. The keys to rolling back authoritarian populism, in Stuenkel’s view, are free media that can report on government performance and free elections that allow voters to change course when leaders fail to deliver.
Michael Bluhm: How do Bolsonaro and Brazil fit into the global rise in authoritarian populism?
Oliver Stuenkel: Brazil is in every text on this subject because of how explicitly Bolsonaro embraced authoritarian ideas as a candidate, which makes Brazil a bit different from countries like Turkey, where you initially did have support even from the international community [for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan], and then these leaders slowly became more authoritarian.
Bolsonaro sensed in 2018 a unique opening, because you had disenchantment not only with political elites, but with democracy. You don’t have somebody like Bolsonaro emerge in a healthy democracy. We tend to focus on individuals and say, This person is key in understanding the erosion of democracy. But somebody like Bolsonaro doesn’t have a shot at winning an election in Sweden, or Switzerland, or Uruguay.
Brazil’s democracy is a young democracy. Our constitution is from 1988. We had the first direct presidential election in ‘89. This is something that most Brazilians can remember.
Since Brazil crashed out of the World Cup in 2014, which it had organized, things have…
