A ascenção da direita no Brasil, Argentina, Chile e Uruguai: reflexões a partir da teoria do discurso de Laclau e Mouffe

Abstract

Considering the exhaustion of the progressive cycle in Latin America, this research aims to understand how right wing discourse was constituted and hegemonized in the electoral context in Argentina (2015), Brazil (2018), Chile (2017) and Uruguay (2019) from the perspective of Laclau and Mouffe’s theoretical framework. The research hypothesis is that right wing discourse in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay became hegemonic because the right wing was able to connect their candidates to demands that progressive politicians could no longer satisfy after the exhaustion of the commodities boom. The research method is created based on categories of chamber of equivalence, difference and antagonism defended by Laclau and Mouffe. The research analysis is constituted by the candidates’ government plans, videos uploaded on each candidates’ official channel exclusively during the electoral period and the official debates registered in the electoral court of each country. The material was analyzed and classified into 16 nodes: critiques to government, democracy, economy, education, social inclusion, infrastructure, justice, environment, state model, foreign affairs, people, religion, health, safety, work, values. The nalysis demonstrates that the four discourses that were analyzed promoted several critiques to the model of state management promoted by progressive governments, accusing it of being exclusionary, inefficient and corrupt. They articulate themselves in chamber of equivalences defending an efficient and non-ureaucratic state besides liberal positions in the economy and conservative positions in terms of values. The conclusion is that the analyzed discourses articulate feelings of abandonment and care in order to articulate, in chambers of equivalence, the demands unmet by progressive governments, creating a people opposed to left wing governments.