Low Institutionalism and Populism in Brazil and the United States

Abstract

This article has as its theme populism and the low institutionality in Brazil. It seeks to answer the question of why populism in Brazil and the United States led to a degradation of the institutions. The hypothesis is the presence of a contemporary authoritarian personality, which, combined with the electoral and administrative strategies allowed by the institutionality itself, led to a degradation of institutions towards a kind of not only economic, but also social anarcapitalism, which consists of a society without rules. The objective, therefore, will be to clarify how this process of low institutionality took place. The method consisted in the use of a hypothetical-deductive stance, where, in a first moment, the contemporary authoritarian personality was studied, in a second moment the forms of circulation of power and Law and, finally, the consequences in loss of institutionality. It was concluded in the sense of the hypothesis, that is, that populist leaders had at hand tools granted by the institutionality itself for the destruction of the rules of a minimally civilized society.

Keywords

• Populism
• Authoritarianism
• Low institutionality
• Social anomie