Populist Politics in Contemporary Brazil : Understanding Lulism and Bolsonarism

Draws on the complexity of recent Brazilian politics to understand the populist challenge to the inequalities of liberal democratic societies.

This is the first English language book to analyse the contrasting populisms of Lula and Bolsonaro, developing a unique analysis of Brazilian politics and the more than two-decade long rule of populisms of the left and the right. Lulism, as a centre-left discourse, defends the basic institutional framework of liberal democracies while contesting their inequalities. Bolsonarism is an extreme right-wing, flagrantly anti-democratic political movement. Introducing English speaking readers to why Brazil is central to contemporary geopolitical concerns, the book investigates how populisms imagine, represent and respond to debates about equality and social rights. It centres climate change in the analysis of populist politics, centring debates about the ‘natural world’ in both populisms, and analyses the place of indigenous identities and political claims in relation to Brazil’s populist discourses.