Abstract
Some claim that an erosion of democracy is occurring worldwide. There are also questions on the scope of the crisis, which countries are affected, and how to reverse it. The Covid-19 pandemic may have fostered disagreements, deepened rifts, and contributed to the definitive crystallisation of the crisis, but it may also have engendered more moderate and compliant attitudes given the need to unify around the response to common threat. We explore the current dilemmas of democracy in the Brazilian case, focusing on how regime legitimacy, authoritarian attitudes, and support for a populist, authoritarian leader interact and are affected by the pandemic, using public opinion data from 2018 to 2020.
Highlights
An erosion of democracy is taking place worldwide
We explore the current dilemmas of democracy in the Brazilian case, focusing on public opinion and mass political behaviour
We show how Jair Bolsonaro has become a champion of authoritarianism among Brazilian political elites, openly defending a rhetoric that undermines the idea of democracy as “the only game in town.”
Summary
An erosion of democracy is taking place worldwide. Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, and Adam Przeworski, among many others, established the main elements of a theory on the crisis of democracy as situations in which status quo institutions are in some kind of. By considering issues of mass behaviour, in particular perspectives on popular support for anti- democratic solutions and regime legitimacy, the current debate about the crisis of democracy can be better qualified (Foa and Mounk, 2019, 2019). There is a continuous process of institutional disruption taking place, a frustration of economic growth and inclusion, and an open attack on counter-majoritarian institutions through the threat of a military coup to be carried out by Bolsonaro himself How does this reflect on mass political behaviour and attitudes? We use a composite index for authoritarianism based on attitudes towards the democratic regime (Seligson and Tucker, 2005) This is an extreme measure of support for anti-d emocratic solutions, and it represents a small portion of the Brazilian population. This group currently constitutes about 20 per cent of the population
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