Cash transfers, the pandemic and Bolsonaro: analysing polarizing paradoxes in Brazilian governance
Cash transfers, the pandemic and Bolsonaro: analysing polarizing paradoxes in Brazilian governance

Author(s): Camila Jardim, Devika Misra
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Politics, Social Sciences, Political Theory, Sociology, Government/Political systems, Politics and society, Health and medicine and law
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego
Keywords: cash-transfers; populism; Bolsonaro; Lula; COVID-19
Summary/Abstract: In the post-pandemic scenario, with hunger and poverty increasing in Brazil, populist leaders situatedalong the spectrum, Jair Messias Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva have articulated welfare policiesincluding conditional cash transfer policies, in their presidential campaigns. However, representingdifferent sides of the spectrum, analysts have argued that they hold strong similarities due to their populistdiscourses and dispute very similar electoral audiences. During the run up to the 2022 presidentialelections, various surveys of voting intentions of the Brazilian public underlined Lula’s popularity,whose legacy of social spending were refurbished by new promises to address the ravages of the pandemicin Brazilian society due to the pandemic, in opposition to the austere front majorly supported by theBolsonaro government regarding government social spending. These surveys led Bolsonaro’s supportersin the Congress to approve measures allowing the Bolsonaro government to create and expand cashtransfers, thereby identifying this aid as a means to gain voter support in Brazil. However, Bolsonaro’snew program Auxílio Brasil, created to replace the former Bolsa Família launched by Lula, lacked clearguidelines that would allow it to generate fair results and was questioned on its ability to reach thosemost in need. This obfuscation of policy undercut the transformative potential of cash transfer policiesin such a critical moment, while highlighting an interesting relationship between populist dichotomicdiscourses of elite versus people, pandemic management and garnering popular support in Brazil. Thischapter evaluates this paradox to underscore the transitions in social welfare policies in Brazil in thecurrent scenario of increased polarization and political passions mobilizations.

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