Understanding Samba Politics in Brazil

we should pay more attention to Presidential elections to be held in Brazil on 30 October, This is not just because Brazil, like India, is part of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), a political group that seeks to challenge unipolarity. So what happens to Brazil’s democracy is a matter of concern to us. Or even not because the future of the Amazon, the last magical natural forest to provide the world with vast ecosystem services, is at stake, as the incumbent seeks to destroy it and the challenger to protect it. And not even if Brazil will join forces with growing leftist tendencies in Latin America because leftist governments are committed to greater social welfare while rejecting neo-liberal policies. These, in themselves, are good reasons to pay more attention. But there are others.

Brazil as a comparison

As we, in our narrow mindedness, try to understand what democracy is doing to India, there is a need to look at another democracy, as a comparison, in 2022. Brazil is a good candidate. Its area is 2.59 times larger than that of India. Its population is 213 million versus India’s 1.34 billion. Its GDP is about half that of India at 1.61 t versus 3.17 t; Its median income is $7,720 compared to India’s $2,170. And its unemployment rate of 14.4% compares with India’s 6%. It is a multi-party democracy, with an active print and electronic media, a vibrant civil society and a social media that plays a powerful role in driving, perhaps determining, election results. In addition, Brazil has a large middle class, a highly skilled elite, a large number of poor people and, finally, a significant diaspora. These facts and characteristics have democratic consequences.

I accidentally stumbled upon the import of Brazil’s elections when, on the morning of October 2, I walked out of the building in New York where I was living, and thousands of Brazilians eagerly waited for their turn at the polling station. . in mid-city Manhattan. He was a raucous lot. They shouted slogans at each other. Between them stood a tense line of New York policemen. two groups of brazilians, one of whom is wearing red Lula And the other was facing Bolsonaro’s yellow. You can feel the rhythmic samba of their sloganeering. I was sad that as an Indian I knew very little about the Brazilian elections.

Since we in India have always wanted to improve our electoral system through administrative and legislative innovations, here are some additional features of the Brazilian electoral system that we can consider. Brazil has compulsory voting and dual citizenship – which explains the thousands of noises in New York. Like India, Brazil uses a sophisticated Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and a biometric system of voter identification. By 2020, 119 million voters had registered their fingerprints. In the last six presidential elections, voter turnout was close to 80%. Results are available on the same day. Based on media reports, it appears that Brazil has an independent electoral management body – the Electoral Court – that conducts elections; It publicly and boldly called on President Bolsonaro when during the campaign he suggested the possibility of voter fraud and EVM tampering. An independent electoral management body ready to call on the executive to intervene is the cornerstone of democracy. Looks like Brazil has one.

Worth noting again. The first round of elections is held every four years on the first Sunday of October and if no candidate receives 50% plus one vote, the run-off between the top two takes place on 30 October. In addition, Brazil has a mixed vote. The electoral system where, at some levels, it adopts a First Past the Post (FPTP) system and at other levels, a Proportional Representation (PR) system. It seems that India compares well with Brazil. Or is it the other way around?

political polarization

Every comment on the 2022 Brazilian election begins with the observation that it is a highly polarized election. But besides saying that the two manifestos of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro are fundamentally different, students of democracy today need to recognize that in democracies around the world, such political polarization is both important and dangerous. He is going. Consent is breaking. It is as if there are now two incomparable nations in every democracy with little chance of forging an overlapping consensus. Partition has become ideologically ideological not only on what constitutes a desirable future but also on the means to get there. It is a choice between market forces versus state intervention; Trickle Down vs. Safety Net; Development with distribution versus development, resulting in a leveling, and cultural nationalism versus cosmopolitanism. Data comes to the aid of both sides of the argument.

In Brazil, the ruling Mr. Bolsonaro has also used the language of war. All social welfare schemes are termed as communist and being communist is a terrible thing. The ideological triumphism of Wall Street seems to have spread around the world. However, Latin America is challenging this neo-liberal hegemony. In India too we should revisit these debates to free our minds from colonialism. In 1989, Brazil introduced us to the attractive democratic innovation of ‘participatory budgeting’ through its experiment in Porto Alegre. Soon after the 1990s, we responded with our own innovation of ‘People’s Campaign for the Ninth Plan’ in Kerala. On democratic innovations, Brazil is a good comparison, with schemes like the Bolsa Familia.

Consequences of Global Democracy

There is growing concern among Democrats that the October 30 election results will be disputed and that the US slogan of a ‘stolen election’ on January 6 will be adopted by Mr Bolsonaro. They have said that they can only be removed by God, by death, or by fraudulent choice. The threat that a given ‘peaceful succession’ in any democracy could be in jeopardy is a frightening prospect.

In addition, the middle class, which according to the democratic principle is considered a shield against democratic backsliding, has now become its facilitator in Brazil. The middle class is divided in its political partisanship. Its sections remain in discourse silos on the left and right. From the center of politics, they have now gone to the extreme, making public arguments clouded by intense ideology. This can be seen in the results of the first round of elections on 2 October (Mr. Lula, 48.4% of the vote share and Mr. Bolsonaro, 43.2%). The two ministers in Bolsonaro’s government holding the portfolios of health and environment respectively, one responsible for a large number of COVID-19 deaths and the other responsible for the destruction of the Amazon, were both re-elected. In contrast, two LGBT activists belonging to vulnerable groups and two members of the indigenous community have also been elected during the Bolsonaro regime. A highly politically partisan Brazil, a peaceful succession in danger, an Amazon ecosystem at risk, a promise to turn to the left or a return to the right are all at stake on October 30.

Where will Brazil go? And what are the lessons for India?

Peter Ronald D’Souza is the DD Kosambi Visiting Professor at Goa University. He has recently co-edited the book ‘Companion to Indian Democracy: Resilience, Fragility and Ambivance’. Views expressed are personal