New right or old wine in new bottles? The conservative trajectory in Brazil in the last century

Abstract

The electoral victory of Jair Bolsonaro surprised the world in 2018 not just because he was an unknown candidate from a small party but because of what he said about women, African descendants, homosexuals, and his outdated anticommunism from the Cold War. It was the result of an alliance between pragmatic military, neoliberals and religious conservatives. But this is not a surprise in the academic world. This article aims to show how, since the third decade in the 20th century, authoritarians and conservatives are part of the political scene in Brazil, present both in the National Congress and in the elites. The hypothesis is that a new far right government is not a political break but results from a long trajectory. The cultural background in the election of Bolsonaro is discussed using data from World Values Survey and analyses of political thought in the last century. It is concluded that, with Brazil’s conservative tradition based in religion and authoritarian political values, Bolsonaro can be evaluated as more of the same and not as a rupture.