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The Bolsonaro Voter: Issue Positions and Vote Choice in the 2018 Brazilian Presidential Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2020

Lucio R. Rennó Open the ORCID record for Lucio R. Rennó [Opens in a new window]
Lucio R. Rennó*
Affiliation:
Lucio R. Rennó is an associate professor at the Instituto de Ciência Política, Universidade de Brasília.
*
luciorenno@unb.br.
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Abstract

The 2018 Brazilian elections saw the rise to power of Jair Bolsonaro, yet another conservative politician who won an election in recent years. What were the ideological underpinnings of the Bolsonaro vote? Was his support based exclusively on resentment toward the Workers’ Party? This article uses a unique public opinion dataset, the 2018 Brazilian Electoral Panel Study, to explore how positions on divisive issues related to social, political, and cultural factors influenced vote choice and Bolsonarismo—affection toward Bolsonaro supporters—in the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections. Results indicate that in addition to resentment against the Workers’ Party, a cultural backlash perspective, and strict views on law and order, as well as economic liberalism and rejection of social policies, were the characteristics of support for Bolsonaro.

Keywords

Voting behaviorvoteconservatismJair Bolsonaroantipetismo
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 62 , Issue 4 , November 2020 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
© The Author, 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the University of Miami

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Footnotes

Conflict of interest: Author Lucio Rennó declares none.

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