UNITED STATES, BRAZIL, POLITICAL POLARIZATION AND DEMOCRATIC PUSHBACK. ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY?

Abstract

This article, starting with the attacks on U.S. and Brazilian democratic institutions in January 2021 and 2023, aims to understand whether and how the phenomenon of political polarization may be related to an increase in political violence in democracies and a possible democratic retreat. Likewise, the concept of democratic resilience and how democracies can resist the dangers of political polarization will be investigated. The phenomenon of political polarization can be detrimental to democracies in that, if extreme, it can bring politics to the essential categories of "friend and foe," the politics of "us versus them," which can result in the acceptance of undemocratic actions such as the aforementioned assaults on institutions. However, democracies can find in the consolidation of civic and democratic culture, and strict separation of powers, the means to resist challenges to democracy itself, including the phenomenon of political polarization.