THE RISE OF POPULISM AND ITS TENSIONS WITH EQUALITY IN THE RULE OF LAW

REFLECTIONS FROM THE BRAZILIAN EXPERIENCE

Resumo

Populism is on the rise in various regions of the world. It is a style of politics that takes antagonism as an axiom for its functionality. From this dichotomy, there’s an increase in polarization, as populism discourse seeks to create a scenario of “us” versus “them” in its attempt to point out the inadequacy of the “elites” (them), and their lack of legitimacy before the “people” (us), personified and represented in this case by the populist leader, an individual who claims to possess exceptional leadership prowess. The rising tensions deriving from this new political conjuncture tends to create rifts with the traditional liberal policies that aim to promote an equilibrium between the ruling majority and the rights of minorities, as populist methods can involve a rupture with this established political order. Some of the biggest threats for constitutional democracy in recent years have been carried out by democratically elected leaders that, once in office, act to undermine democratic rules from within to consolidate their power. Kim Lane Scheppele has named this modus operandi as “autocratic legalism”, which seeks merely a formal observance of legality and claims of the “will of the majority” to increasingly restrict the protection of rights, checks and balances of power, and the “liberal values of toleration, pluralism and equality”. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how populism, and more specifically this autocratic/authoritarian version of populism, is incompatible with democratic constitutionalism principles and values, proposing a case study that had been developing in recent years in Brazil, in the government of the former president Jair Bolsonaro. In this context we attempt to demonstrate how a series of initiatives and acts carried out under Jair Bolsonaro’s administration undermined the Rule of Law, hampering the independence of institutions that act on the behalf of the checks and balances of power, as well as the promotion of equality, since attacks towards minorities became a constant in the last few years. We conclude that this conjuncture contributed the escalation of political violence in Brazil, culminating in the violent riots that took place on the 8^th of January of 2023, after thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters attacked the presidential palace and the building of the Brazilian Supreme Court, after his electoral defeat in the 2022’s presidential election.