The rise of the extreme right and the challenges to the democratic rule of law in Brazil (2018-2022)

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the reasons that led to the rise of the current extreme right, from a populist and authoritarian matrix, to power in Brazil, and the impacts on the democratic rule of law. The work consisted of a descriptive and comprehensive research based on a systematic observation and analysis of the most recent facts of the Brazilian political experience based on data extracted from newspapers, magazines, websites, internet channels, documentation from public and judicial bodies and entities and news broadcasts. It was discussed how such a rise has negatively and threateningly impacted the main institutions of the democratic rule of law in the country in charge of the dominant social classes, with harmful sacrifices of the traditional social public agenda. This reality is reproduced from of an authoritarian populism, under the Bolsonaro government, with its due specificities.This article aims to analyze the rise of a extreme right policy in Brazil, from bolsonarism and the election of Bolsonaro in 2018, highlighting its empirical evidence and the impacts on the democratic rule of law. In view of this, the work was guided by the following synthesis question: what are the impacts of the rise of the extreme right, from bolsonarism and the election of Bolsonaro, on the democratic state of law in Brazil? In search of answers, we focused theoretically and conceptually about the “extreme right” category, based on the authors who directly and opportunely dealt with the subject, which is why they are part of the theoretical basis of reflection on the current Brazilian political reality. From a dialectical approach, we bring together evidences from the current political scenario, as a result of the confrontation between our observations and the different analyses by authors that dedicate their studies on a new right policy in Brazil contemporary. The work consists of a descriptive research and political comprehension, starting from a systematic observation and analysis of most recent data from newspapers, magazines, websites, internet channels, broadcast on television news. The research revealed that the rise of the extreme right, marked by authoritarian populism, under the Bolsonaro government, with its due specificities, negatively impacted the main institutions of the democratic rule of law in the country, in charge of the dominant social classes, with threats to the legal order, attacks on human rights and citizenship, with deleterious effects on the social inclusion agenda.