O povo no caleidoscópio: o discurso bolsonarista à luz das teorias contemporâneas do populismo

Abstract

Populism is a phenomenon which traces back to two agrarian movements of the 19th century. Since then, its increasing occurrence in different parts of the world and in a variety of forms has led political theorists to give further consideration to the issue. The analytical efforts have undergone different stages, leading to a wider perspective and expanding the debate to include aspects regarding populism’s relation with liberal democracy and the centrality of antagonism. In the past decade, populism has returned to the center of the theoretical debate due to its resurgence. With new characteristics, the present populist moment has been defined by its reactive and radical tone. In Brazil, a discourse with similar traits gained prominence and culminated in the victory of Jair M. Bolsonaro in the presidential election of 2018. Aiming to verify the suitability of classifying bolsonarism as a populist phenomenon, the study identified the key meanings articulated in the discourse in order to elucidate the centrality of the “people” and the “enemy”. On the basis of the theoretical framework of populism, the study employed Laclaunian discourse analysis to investigate the pre-electoral and electoral discourses of Jair M. Bolsonaro (2015-2018) in his main communication platform, Facebook. The results supported the hypothesis, confirming bolsonarism as a reactive right-wing populist discourse. Identifying the “people” of bolsonarism in the signifier of “the good citizen”, in opposition to the “enemy”, described in the imagem of the Workers’ Party, the study underlines the need for the populist theory to consider other ways in which “the people” can be constructed, many of which defy the conventional typologies offered by existing literature. Furthermore, it suggests adjustments to the dichotomies associated with the populist phenomenon.