The Faces of Authoritarianism and Strategies of Dissent in Contemporary Brazil
Distributed for UCL Press
The Faces of Authoritarianism and Strategies of Dissent in Contemporary Brazil
Faces of Authoritarianism and Strategies of Dissent in Contemporary Brazil dissects the Bolsonaro era as a critical moment in Brazil’s long history of democratic struggle, outlining how authoritarianism took shape and how it was challenged. Rather than viewing Bolsonaro’s presidency as an anomaly, this volume situates it within broader historical and political continuities and highlights the ways state and non-state actors alike engaged in battles over democracy’s meaning.
Interlacing interdisciplinary perspectives, the book explores key arenas of contestation, from institutions under siege to grassroots resistance, providing theoretical depth and rich ethnographic accounts. With a focus on repression and resistance and the shifting boundaries of democratic governance, Faces of Authoritarianism displays a crucial framework for understanding Brazil’s political landscape and its global implications. Required reading for scholars of authoritarianism, democracy, and Latin American politics, this book offers a nuanced view of how democratic backsliding is met with acts of defiance and negotiation.
228 pages | 1 halftone, 6 figures, 2 tables | 6.14 x 9.21
Political Science: Political Behavior and Public Opinion
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
List of abbreviations
1 The faces of authoritarianism: An introduction
Katerina Hatzikidi and Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos
Part I: National myth, international pariah?
2 From Bolsonaro to Lula: theoretical and political challenges in Brazilian politics
Marcos Nobre
3 The radical right in Brazil as part of a global family
Ariel Goldstein
Part II: Small actions, great impacts
4 Bureaucratic resistance and its limits in Bolsonaro’s Brazil
Katherine Bersch, Gabriela Lotta and Daniel Thomas
5 Autonomy as limitless freedom: authoritarian affordances in Brazil’s Prevent Senior case
Katerina Hatzikidi
6 Regimes of truth: disinformation and conflicting on- and off-line realities
Lorena Barberia, Natália de Paula Moreira and Isabel Seelander Costa Rosa
Part III: God above all
7 Mobilising Pentecostal Christianity: spiritual warfare and political activism amid the 2022 Brazilian elections
Manoela Carpenedo
8 Opacity and anxiety: how disruptive ritual may offer a clue to certain evangelical affinities with political authoritarianism
David Lehmann
Part IV: Political peripheries at the centre
9 Corruption models and the appeal of left and right-wing politics in rural Brazil
Aaron Ansell
10 Idealism, pragmatism and disenchantment in Brazilian elections: Politicians and the votes of the poor in Recife and Olinda
Flávio Eiró
11 Afterword
Flávia Biroli