Conservative turn, milícias, and elections

Abstract

Brazil is currently experiencing a conservative turn, which has found expression not only in Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency (2019–2022) but also in the phenomenon of so-called milícias expanding in low-income neighborhoods as well as in the emergence of anti-social movements that identify themselves as right-wing and conservative. In this context, the paper uses the example of the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region to discuss the relationship between (i) the emergence of conservative and far-right groups; (ii) the expansion of milícias in the city of Rio de Janeiro; and (iii) their influence on voting behavior in low-income, milícia-dominated neighborhoods in elections between 2018 and 2022. The forms of territorial control practiced by milícias, including information networks, disciplinary social control, mediation between individual and collective interests, and electoral control, have not yet received sufficient attention from authorities or in social analysis and research. A number of political organizations and alternative media are responsible for spreading antidemocratic values and practices. In doing so, they seek to legitimize the undercurrent conservative turn in the country and to weaken the links between urban experience and democracy.