Majority threat and bolsonarism: what is the relationship

Abstract

This work aims to test the determinants of the majority threat to liberal democracy (Grossman et al., 2021) in Brazil. Contrary to the classic precepts of liberal democracy, the idea associates greater power to the executive, disdaining minorities and the balance of powers. The idea of this survey is based on a recent work (Albertus and Grossman, 2021) which points to this dimension associated with support for Jair Bolsonaro. Data obtained from a national sample in a survey carried out shortly after the 2018 election are used. The results point to corroboration of the findings by Albertus and Grossman. Among the control variables, education and income were negatively associated with the majority conception. Another instigating result is that the vote for Ciro Gomes was the one that was least associated with the majority threat.