{"id":437,"date":"2018-11-30T10:14:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T10:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=437"},"modified":"2018-12-03T13:55:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T13:55:32","slug":"jair-bolsonaro-how-business-elites-helped-him-to-power-in-brazil-and-why-they-might-regret-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/jair-bolsonaro-how-business-elites-helped-him-to-power-in-brazil-and-why-they-might-regret-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Jair Bolsonaro: how business elites helped him to power in Brazil \u2013 and why they might regret it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Bolsonaro emerged from relative obscurity. Using similar tactics to Donald Trump, he made outrageous comments, amplified by social media,\u00a0to stoke up fears\u00a0about urban violence, the destruction of \u201ctraditional\u201d moral values and the family, and the endemic corruption of\u00a0the Brazilian establishment.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In our latest post, Dr Heike Doering explains how Brazil\u2019s business elite has influenced the country\u2019s politics. Her research with colleagues Professor Glenn Morgan, University of Bristol and Dr Marcus Gomes, University of Exeter, reveals how Brazil\u2019s political barometer has swung from far left to far right since 2002.<\/h3>\n

Brazil has just experienced one of its most\u00a0important and divisive elections<\/a>\u00a0since the end of the country\u2019s 1964-1985\u00a0military dictatorship<\/a>. The first presidential election to be held since the\u00a02016 impeachment<\/a>\u00a0of Dilma Rousseff took place against a backdrop of political and economic turmoil. And this proved to be fertile ground for the winner \u2013 the far right, conservative populist,\u00a0Jair Bolsonaro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much has been made of Bolsonaro\u2019s Trump-like, anti-establishment rhetoric and flagrant\u00a0disdain for minority rights<\/a>, which struck a chord with a population increasingly\u00a0disillusioned with politics<\/a>. But Bolsonaro also won the backing of Brazil\u2019s business elite, which has a long history of shaping politics in the country.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0have researched<\/a>\u00a0how the country\u2019s business elite has been seeking to influence Brazilian politics since 2002, leading to its recent backing of Bolsonaro. And our findings go some way towards explaining how the country has swung from the far left to the far right in a little over a decade.<\/p>\n

When Luiz In\u00e1cio \u201cLula\u201d da Silva of the Workers\u2019 Party (PT) was elected president in 2002, the prospect of a left-wing government shook Brazil\u2019s business elite and its international supporters.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness initially withdrew its support from the Brazilian economy through a reluctance to invest, leading the stock market to tumble, the currency to collapse and the costs of government borrowing to escalate.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a consequence, Lula was forced to promise business increased macroeconomic stability, to control inflation and to seek fiscal equilibrium.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Luiz In\u00e1cio alongside Brazilian businessman and politician Jos\u00e9 Alencar.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This recognition of the interests of business was the basis of a perhaps surprising alliance between Lula\u2019s left-wing administration and powerful business associations. Lula\u2019s social and economic agenda, dubbed \u201cNew Developmentalism\u201d, aimed to support the development of Brazilian multinationals by providing low interest loans from the state bank, BNDES. Commentators even called this economic policy the \u201cFIESP agenda\u201d (after the most powerful business association, the Federation of Industries of S\u00e3o Paulo), showing how close the ties between big business and the PT government were for most of the 2000s.<\/p>\n

Despite his government\u2019s close relationship with business, Lula also launched redistribution policies such as the \u201cbolsa familia\u201d, which financially rewarded poor families if they kept their children in school and health programmes. Against a backdrop of booming commodity prices, incomes rose, the middle class expanded, inequality decreased \u2013 and major Brazilian companies expanded abroad and in the growing home market.<\/p>\n

End of the good times<\/h3>\n

But then the relationship between the left-wing government and big business turned sour. From 2012 onwards, the PT government, now under Rousseff, faced a less favourable international economy, hampered by declining global commodity prices, which damaged Brazilian exports. This led to a growing gap in Brazil between state revenue and expenditure, coupled with high levels of borrowing and the threat of tax increases.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe poor quality of public services and infrastructure projects \u2013 including the 2014 football World Cup and 2016 Olympics \u2013 and growing evidence of large-scale corruption among politicians from all parties, led to massive street protests in June 2018.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our research shows how FIESP and its allies in the media and the legislature shaped these protests into a narrative that focused blame on the alleged corruption of the PT and its mismanagement of the economy. FIESP thus became a key force behind the increasing street protests against Rousseff (and their mascot, a huge inflatable yellow duck).<\/p>\n

\"\"
FIESP use the duck to protest against high taxes and alleged government corruption.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The duck symbolised the Brazilian proverb \u201cpagar o pato\u201d (to pay the duck). The saying relates to unfairly paying for someone else\u2019s mistakes \u2013 in this case, the mistakes of the PT government.<\/p>\n

To right the apparent wrongs of the PT, the new FIESP agenda focused on reducing the\u00a0\u201ccusto Brazil\u201d<\/a>, the high cost of living and doing business in Brazil. This would require cuts to tax, pension entitlements and other social welfare expenditure as well as scrapping a range of environmental and labour regulations. And it appealed to large swathes of the population. The street campaign led to Dilma Rousseff\u2019s impeachment and her replacement by\u00a0Michel Temer<\/a>\u00a0who began to implement aspects of the new FIESP policy.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s rise<\/h3>\n

Bolsonaro emerged from relative obscurity. Using similar tactics to Donald Trump, he made outrageous comments, amplified by social media,\u00a0to stoke up fears<\/a>\u00a0about urban violence, the destruction of \u201ctraditional\u201d moral values and the family, and the endemic corruption of\u00a0the Brazilian establishment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During his 27 years in Congress, Bolsonaro had a record of supporting protectionism and public sector largesse. So in a direct attempt to reassure big business, he appointed as an economic adviser the well-known, Chicago-trained neoliberal\u00a0Paulo Guedes<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and began espousing far more pro-market views. Subsequently, members of the business elite,\u00a0including FIESP\u2019s president<\/a>, Paulo Skaf, declared their support for Bolsonaro believing he could\u00a0deliver their economic agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But this is a high risk strategy, as business elites around the world have discovered when they\u2019ve thrown in their lot with right-wing populists such as Trump,\u00a0Rodrigo Duterte<\/a>\u00a0in the Philippines,\u00a0Viktor Orban<\/a>\u00a0in Hungary,\u00a0Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan<\/a>\u00a0in Turkey and the Brexiteers in the UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese leaders have in common their readiness to risk huge instability by undermining both domestic and international institutions through the use of symbolic gestures that appeal to their base but are\u00a0potentially damaging to business<\/a>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So how will a Bolsonaro presidency evolve as it seeks to combine a neoliberal policy of deregulation with its populist, social media-fed mobilisation of hate politics?<\/p>\n

If Bolsonaro grows to show the markets the same degree of contempt he has shown so many other groups in Brazil, the business elites may grow to regret their support. As the Bible, one of the favourite books of the famously Christian Bolsonaro, says: \u201cFor they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Heike Doering<\/a><\/strong> is a Lecturer in International Management at Cardiff Business School.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Glenn Morgan<\/a><\/strong> is a Professor of Management at the School of Economics, Finance and Management at the University of Bristol.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr Marcus Gomes<\/a><\/strong> is a Lecturer in Organisation Studies and Sustainability at the University of Exeter Business School.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation UK<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bolsonaro emerged from relative obscurity. Using similar tactics to Donald Trump, he made outrageous comments, amplified by social media,\u00a0to stoke up fears\u00a0about urban violence, the destruction of \u201ctraditional\u201d moral values […]","protected":false},"author":1620,"featured_media":438,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[213],"tags":[214,167,9,28,169,216,219,218,221,222,227,224,215,226,223,95,168,220,195,217,16,154,230,225,23,229,228],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-management","tag-brazil","tag-brexit","tag-business","tag-cardiff-business-school","tag-conservatives","tag-donald-trump","tag-economics","tag-election","tag-far-right","tag-government","tag-hate-politics","tag-hungary","tag-jair-bolsonaro","tag-neoliberal","tag-philippines","tag-policy","tag-politics","tag-populist","tag-power","tag-president","tag-research","tag-social-media","tag-the-conversation","tag-turkey","tag-uk","tag-university-of-bristol","tag-university-of-exeter"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paOfaS-73","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2018\/11\/Jair-Bolsonaro.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions\/498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}