Jair Bolsonaro

Based on the ten prin­ci­ples of Nation­al Con­ser­vatism, Jair Bol­sonaro can be eval­u­at­ed in terms of how well his poli­cies and rhetoric align with these prin­ci­ples. Here’s a break­down of each prin­ci­ple in rela­tion to Bolsonaro:

1.Exclu­sion­ary Sov­er­eign­ty and Identity

Bol­sonaro strong­ly empha­sized Brazil’s sov­er­eign­ty and nation­al iden­ti­ty, often invok­ing Chris­t­ian val­ues and pro­mot­ing Brazil’s tra­di­tion­al cul­tur­al her­itage. How­ev­er, his rhetoric some­times alien­at­ed minor­i­ty groups, par­tic­u­lar­ly Indige­nous peo­ples and LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ties, align­ing with this principle’s exclu­sion­ary aspects.

2.Eco­nom­ic Nationalism

While Bol­sonaro pur­sued eco­nom­ic lib­er­al­iza­tion, his focus on pro­tect­ing Brazil’s agri­cul­tur­al sec­tor and resis­tance to inter­na­tion­al envi­ron­men­tal agree­ments reflect ele­ments of eco­nom­ic nation­al­ism. Crit­ics argue that his favoritism toward polit­i­cal­ly con­nect­ed agribusi­ness under­mines fair competition.

3.Patri­o­tism Over Glob­al Cooperation

Bol­sonaro fre­quent­ly reject­ed glob­al coop­er­a­tion frame­works, crit­i­ciz­ing inter­na­tion­al insti­tu­tions like the UN and dis­miss­ing the Paris Cli­mate Accord as a threat to Brazil­ian sov­er­eign­ty. This aligns strong­ly with pri­or­i­tiz­ing patri­o­tism over glob­al cooperation.

4.Pri­or­i­tiz­ing Econ­o­my Over Environment

Bolsonaro’s admin­is­tra­tion con­sis­tent­ly pri­or­i­tized eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment over envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in poli­cies affect­ing the Ama­zon rain­for­est. His align­ment with this prin­ci­ple is clear in his dereg­u­la­tion of envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tions and sup­port for indus­tri­al expansion.

5.Restric­tive Social Welfare

Bol­sonaro restruc­tured social wel­fare pro­grams, empha­siz­ing lim­it­ed resources for Brazil­ian cit­i­zens while resist­ing ben­e­fits for immi­grants and mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. His rhetoric often framed this as pro­tect­ing nation­al resources.

6.Nation­al­ist Education

Bolsonaro’s poli­cies aimed to reshape Brazil’s edu­ca­tion sys­tem, reduc­ing focus on pro­gres­sive top­ics like gen­der stud­ies and cli­mate change while empha­siz­ing tra­di­tion­al val­ues and nation­al­ist nar­ra­tives. This reflects his align­ment with nation­al­ist edu­ca­tion principles.

7.Harsh Immi­gra­tion Policies

Although immi­gra­tion is less of a cen­tral issue in Brazil, Bolsonaro’s rhetoric occa­sion­al­ly framed immi­grants as poten­tial threats, align­ing with this principle’s empha­sis on restric­tive immi­gra­tion poli­cies and cul­tur­al protectionism.

8.Enforc­ing Tra­di­tion­al Fam­i­ly Structures

Bol­sonaro strong­ly pro­mot­ed tra­di­tion­al fam­i­ly struc­tures and opposed pro­gres­sive poli­cies sup­port­ing LGBTQ+ rights and alter­na­tive fam­i­ly mod­els. This prin­ci­ple aligns well with his administration’s focus on con­ser­v­a­tive social values.

9.Con­trol­ling Media and Shap­ing Narratives

Bol­sonaro fre­quent­ly crit­i­cized main­stream media as biased and used social media plat­forms to con­nect direct­ly with sup­port­ers. His admin­is­tra­tion was accused of spread­ing mis­in­for­ma­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, align­ing with this principle.

10.Mil­i­ta­rized Nation­al Secu­ri­ty Focus

Bol­sonaro empha­sized strong nation­al secu­ri­ty, increas­ing defense spend­ing and mil­i­ta­riz­ing parts of the gov­ern­ment. His focus on law enforce­ment and bor­der secu­ri­ty over diplo­ma­cy aligns close­ly with this principle.

Sum­ma­ry:

Bol­sonaro aligns well with many of these prin­ci­ples, par­tic­u­lar­ly Exclu­sion­ary Sov­er­eign­ty and Iden­ti­ty, Patri­o­tism Over Glob­al Coop­er­a­tion, Pri­or­i­tiz­ing Econ­o­my Over Envi­ron­ment, and Enforc­ing Tra­di­tion­al Fam­i­ly Struc­tures. While immi­gra­tion was less cen­tral to his poli­cies, his rhetoric and actions broad­ly reflect the themes of Nation­al Con­ser­vatism as out­lined here.

Sources forth­com­ming