The corruption of democracy: Corruption scandals, class alliances, and political authoritarianism in Brazil

Saad‐Filho, Alfredo; Boffo, Marco

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.02.003

Cited by 37 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…Even as biopolitical conservation collects unprecedented amounts of data with highly complex technology, it does not mean sound conservation policy automatically follows. This is made apparent by the rise of "authoritarian neoliberalism", such as is the case in Bolsonaro's Brazil (Deutsch 2021;Saad-Filho and Boffo 2021). In these contexts, the authority of technocratic, biopolitical conservation is challenged.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring extinction: defaunation, technology and the biopolitics of conservation in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Kiggell

2021

Journal of Political Ecology

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Due to habitat fragmentation, Brazil's Atlantic Forest is considered one of the world's most threatened biodiversity hotspots. Much of the biome has become extinct of its largest-bodied mammals,leading some to refer it as a 'half-empty forest.' One of the ways conservation actors are responding to this crisis is by utilizing Global Positioning System(GPS), camera trapping, and remote sensing satellite imagery. Together, these tools enable the collection of data at unprecedent levels. By intensifying wildlife monitoring, it is thought that better-directed actions can be taken to avoid species extinction. Although there is a nascent body of research in political ecology examining the role of these new technologies in conservation,so far there has been little exploration of what this implies for the transformation of the governance of conservation spaces. Bringing together literatures on biopolitics of conservation and conservation technologies, this article reflects on the ways new technologies are changing the biopolitical governance of conservation in the Atlantic Forest. I argue that the increase of information flows, together with the ability to process data through models and algorithms, intensifies the capability of biopolitical governance to justify claims for new protected areas, while changing ecological subjectivities. With the increased use of remote sensing technologies, some ecologists are being distanced from the field, and are consequently having less interactions with rural communities. As pressures on biodiversity increase, this may facilitate advocacy for coercive conservation measures that have adverse impacts on local communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring extinction: defaunation, technology and the biopolitics of conservation in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Kiggell

2021

Journal of Political Ecology

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“…The PT’s tenure in power came to an abrupt end in 2016 when President Dilma Rousseff (Lula’s successor) was deposed through a constitutional coup. Supported by pro-business parties, right-wing elements in the judiciary and a corporate-dominated press that had become rabidly anti-PT, Rousseff’s impeachment was a naked power grab by an ‘alliance of elites’ (Saad-Filho and Boffo, 2020) empowered by a series of corruption scandals and middle class protests in 2015. The new president (Temer) immediately pushed through a draconian austerity package, including a constitutional provision that in effect blocked future increases in social expenditures.…”

Section: The Reactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brazenly attacking feminism, indigeneity, environmentalism and all forms of leftism, Bolsonaro has rekindled a powerful tradition of rabid anti-communism that has long animated right-wing nationalist politics in Brazil. Railing against the forces of secularism and political correctness, Bolsonaro’s ‘politics of resentment’ (Saad-Filho and Boffo, 2020: 5) has rallied support for the traditional family, the church, the nation and the military and played on widespread concerns about rising criminality to empower the police and paramilitaries to use violence to quell “anti-social” elements. On the other hand, Bolsonaro has capitalized on and consolidated a new class alignment.…”

Section: The Reactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was the class segment that through a combination of increasing wages and easier access to credit, saw its standard of living rise the most in the 2000s. But as Lero (2019) and Saad-Filho and Boffo (2020) note, while they have been lifted out of poverty, they still live in constant insecurity, most employed in the informal sector. And this is precisely the class segment (2 to 5 times the minimum wage) that broke most dramatically from the PT, voting 23 points in favor of Bolsonaro compared to the next category in the income distribution (2 times the minimum wage) that voted 10 points in favor of the PT (Lero, 2019).…”

Section: The Reactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The age of reaction: Retrenchment populism in India and Brazil

Heller

2020

International Sociology

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Two of the largest democracies in the global south – India and Brazil – have witnessed a dramatic turn to right-wing populism. Careful historical comparison reveals that the form of reaction is markedly different from other recent cases of democratic backsliding. In both cases, reaction has been driven by elites in response to a previous expansion of democratic rights and social inclusion. This form of retrenchment populism is rooted in very similar class realignments that are configured both by economic and socio-cultural interests. Globalization has played a role, but not through the conventionally identified pathways of neoliberalism or modernization. Instead, reaction has been driven by an expanded middle class’s efforts to hoard opportunity and public resources and preserve traditional status privileges.

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“…In what has been referred to as a judicial-parliamentary coup, Brazil's former president Dilma Rousseff of the Worker's Party (PT) was impeached in 2016 (Saad-Filho and Boffo 2020). And after the failure of her successor (and former vice president) Michel Temer's administration to address a deepening economic crisis, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (aka Lula) appeared likely to win the 2018 election.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Populist authoritarian neoliberalism in Brazil: making sense of Bolsonaro's anti-environment agenda

Deutsch

2021

Journal of Political Ecology

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In Brazil, the looming threat of mass extinction has prompted increasingly exceptional measures to protect sensitive biomes. At the same time, such measures threaten to curtail capitalist expansion and thus Brazil's neoliberal model of economic development. Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 presidential campaign responded to these threats by fueling anti-environment sentiments and anti-environmentalist enmity. Once inaugurated, he immediately began the work of dismantling national environmental governance structures. Yet his strategies for doing so are often masked by what this article describes as a 'firehouse effect', where his tactics appear chaotic, confused, and lacking any particular goal. The article uses a combination of interviews with 35 environmental experts, participant observation, and a review of secondary sources to zoom in on Bolsonaro's anti-environmentalism within the context of the contemporary turn toward populist authoritarian neoliberalism. By focusing on how Bolsonaro's policies serve to weaken protective environmental measures that limit capitalist extraction, the article unearths the major anti-environment strategies of the Bolsonaro administration. This framework thus allows us to see through the 'firehouse effect' to make some sense of Bolsonaro's methods, further building on emerging research on the political ecologies of the contemporary populist authoritarian neoliberal turn. Moreover, the article shows the utility of applying a generalized populist authoritarian neoliberal framework to a particular context in order to identify its local processes and specificities.

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The corruption of democracy: Corruption scandals, class alliances, and political authoritarianism in Brazil

Cited by 37 publications

References 29 publications

Monitoring extinction: defaunation, technology and the biopolitics of conservation in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Monitoring extinction: defaunation, technology and the biopolitics of conservation in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

The age of reaction: Retrenchment populism in India and Brazil

Populist authoritarian neoliberalism in Brazil: making sense of Bolsonaro's anti-environment agenda

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