Between Markets and Barracks: The Economic Policy Narrative of Brazilian Authoritarianism

• Author: Niels Søndergaard
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X231154226
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X231154226

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 248, Vol. 50 No. 1, January 2023, 64–79

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X231154226

© 2023 Latin American Perspectives

64

Between Markets and Barracks

The Economic Policy Narrative of Brazilian

Authoritarianism

by

Niels Søndergaard

In recent years, a series of right-wing populists has ascended to power in both the

Global North and the Global South. While these leaders frequently have provided chal-

lenges to liberal democracy, neoliberal modes of economic governance have often been part

of their agendas. Analysis of the economic policy narrative of the Brazilian President Jair

Bolsonaro’s electoral campaign in 2018 through the theoretical lens of authoritarian neo-

liberalism reveals that it has worked by the relegation of economic matters to technocratic

management outside the sphere of democratic debate and the instrumentalized estrange-

ment of groups and institutions opposed to his political views.

Recentemente, uma série de populistas direitistas têm chegado ao poder tanto nos

países do norte como naqueles do sul. Enquanto estes lideres frequentemente apresentam

desafios às democrâcias liberais, modos neoliberais de governança econômica muitas vezes

desempenham um papel nas suas agendas. Uma análise da narrativa da política econômica

na campanha presidencial do Presidente Jair Bolsonaro no Brasil em 2018 mediante uma

visão teorética de neoliberalismo autoritário indica que ela funcionou pela relegação de

assuntos econômicos a gestores tecnocrâticos que ficam fora da esféra de debate democrâtico

e pelo afastamento instrumentalizado de grupos e instituições que se opõem às idéias

políticas de Bolsonaro.

Keywords: Authoritarian neoliberalism, Brazil, Bolsonaro, Policy narratives

Jair Bolsonaro’s election as Brazil’s thirty-eighth president on October 28,

2018, concluded an electoral campaign that had been marked by unprece-

dented polarization and incendiary rhetoric. The elections took place as the

country was immersed in an economic and institutional crisis that had spurred

popular discontent and disenchantment with the political system. This pro-

vided a fertile context for the far-right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro to reach

power by appealing to the reestablishment of order and political renewal.

While the severity of the crisis undoubtedly facilitated his ascent to power,

Bolsonaro’s election should also be viewed as part of a wider global trend of

right-wing populists’ reaching power by electoral means (Capelovitch and

Pevehouse, 2019; Ikenberry, 2018; Levitsky and Ziblatt, 2018). In spite of their

Niels Søndergaard is an assistant professor at the Institute for International Relations of the

Universidade de Brasilia. His interests span various areas of international political economy, in

particular critical approaches to natural-resource production, governance, and trade.

1154226LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X231154226Latin American PerspectivesSøndergaard/ECONOMIC POLICY AND BRAZILIAN AUTHORITARIANISM

research-article2023

Søndergaard/ECONOMIC POLICY AND BRAZILIAN AUTHORITARIANISM 65

commonalities, these different political projects have been marked by great

variety in their emphasis on market orientation as opposed to political author-

itarianism. While they have been advanced on a heterodox economic platform

in some countries, such as Hungary and Poland (Buzogány and Varga, 2018;

Nölke, 2017; Toplišek, 2019), in others, such as Turkey, authoritarian leaders

have combined free-market orientation with repressive and antidemocratic

politics conceptualized as authoritarian neoliberalism (Bozkurt-Gungen, 2018;

Bruff, 2014; Tansel, 2018). That the situation of dubious democratic legitimacy

surrounding the Temer government’s implementation of neoliberal economic

reforms has also been termed authoritarian neoliberalism (Saad-Filho, 2019)

underscores the need to maintain awareness of the diversity of these politics

depending on both the temporal and the spatial locus of their concretization.

While the overtly authoritarian nature of Bolsonaro’s rhetoric has often drawn

much international attention, the market fundamentalism that permeated his

campaign and characterized his election promises has gone relatively unno-

ticed. Considering Brazil’s extreme inequality and the severity of the current

economic and social crisis, it becomes imperative to examine how the intersec-

tion with authoritarian populism fueled a neoliberal policy agenda in this con-

text. This study therefore analyzes the economic policy narrative of the

Bolsonaro campaign from the point of view of recent contributions in the field

of authoritarian neoliberalism. This perspective provides an understanding of

how the insulation of economic policy making from democratic scrutiny, the

instrumentalization of populism, and the strategic estrangement of groups

and institutions provided a path for the electoral success of neoliberalism. The

narrative analysis focuses on the central story lines of antisocialism, antistatism,

and ultraconservative moralism and the underlying emplotment structure that

supported them. Public statements by Bolsonaro and his campaign staff in the

three months preceding the final elections are systematically examined and

provide the basis for the analysis of the narrative structure. In the following,

the article proceeds with a conceptual review of the notion of authoritarian

neoliberalism, a section presenting the narrative approach adopted, an analy-

sis of the Bolsonaro campaign’s economic policy narrative, an analysis of mar-

ket actors’ support for Bolsonaro campaign, and some conclusions.

The PoliTics of AuThoriTAriAn neoliberAlism

Combining a clearly authoritarian discourse and admiration for Brazil’s

military dictatorship (1964–1985) with a neoliberal economic orientation,

Bolsonaro’s ascent to power becomes a relevant object of study through the lens

of the burgeoning literature on authoritarian neoliberalism. This approach

helps to make sense of recent Brazilian events in light of contemporary global

political developments and provides conceptual tools for understanding the

specific character of authoritarian neoliberalism in a Brazilian context. While

authoritarian practices and rationalities have been associated with neoliberal

governance both globally and within Latin America, contemporary authoritar-

ian neoliberal political projects imply characteristics that go beyond any inher-

ently nondemocratic traits of capitalism (Bruff and Tansel, 2018: 7). Since