The Articulations Between Neoliberal and Conservative Demands in Educational Policies in Brazil

• In Event: 77.013 - The Threat to Public Education From the Political Right in the Americas: Trump, Bolsonaro, Pinera, and Macri

Abstract

In 2018, a right-wing conservative government was elected in Brazil, after more than two decades of polarization between social democracy—thus putting into practice the neoliberal ideals of the Reagan-Thatcher coalition—and the Latin American characteristic left-wing populism. However, since the end of the dictatorship, there had been no classic representation of the conservative right in the country. The compromises that elected Bolsonaro included, in addition to ultra-liberal sectors, Pentecostal and conservative Catholic religious groups as well as part of the military elite in power during the dictatorship (decades of 1960-1980). In general terms, the new government could be characterized by what Pantelimon (2014) has defined as neo-populism.

Authors

• Elizabeth F. Macedo, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

• Alice Ribeiro Casimiro Lopes, State University of Rio de Janeiro