Assessing the fourth wave of the populist radical right: Jair Bolsonaro’s voters in comparative perspective

Abstract

This article analyzes the individual factors that help explain the electoral support for Jair Bolsonaro in the 2018 Presidential elections in Brazil in light of the findings for the Populist Radical Right (PRR) in Western Europe. The present article contributes to the comparative literature on the determinants of the vote for the PRR in a non-European country. Analyzing the rise of the PRR in Latin America is particularly relevant since structural constraints limit its chances. To carry out our analysis, we rely on survey data from the Brazilian Electoral Study (BES). Beyond some specificities due to differences in the articulation of the PRR's main ideologies, we found that while certain determinants of the vote for the PRR in Brazil are in line with the hypothesis based on the European experience, others respond to country and region-level indicators like negative identity toward the PT.