A desdemocratização e seus contramovimentos no Brasil: da revolta bolsonarista à política popular do MTST

Abstract

Given the prevailing understanding that right-wing populism is the main threat to contemporary democracy, this thesis seeks to shift the debate to see it as a consequence of the dedemocratization process that liberal regimes have gone through. In other words, it argues that the rise of reactionary leaderships is a response of middle and popular sectors to the disappearance of mechanisms capable of ensuring some degree of political equality and popular sovereignty. In Brazil, the movement led by Jair Bolsonaro must be understood, despite its authoritarian character and the fact that it increases social inequalities, as a countermovement to the consolidation of a postdemocratic system. More than a simple conservative reaction to left governments, it gains strength as it presents itself as an alternative to a system that disqualifies the common man and is impervious to his participation. Indeed, Lulism is understood here from an ambivalent nature and as responsible both for expanding Brazilian democracy and for emptying expectations of its deepening. Finally, an essay informed by participant observation of the struggle of the Homeless Workers Movement illustrates the limits and potential of a radical and progressive way out of the crisis of the liberal order.