Uncivil society and social policies in Brazil: The backlash in the gender, sexual, and reproductive rights and ethnic and racial relations fields
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Catarina Ianni Segatto,Mario Aquino Alves,Andrea Pineda |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1992 |
Received: 17 December 2021
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Revised: 16 May 2022
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Accepted: 23 June 2022
DOI: 10.1002/pad.1992
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Uncivil society and social policies in Brazil: The backlash in
the gender, sexual, and reproductive rights and ethnic and
racial relations fields
Catarina Ianni Segatto
1
|Mario Aquino Alves
2
|Andrea Pineda
2
1
Center for Metropolitan Studies (CEM), São
Paulo, Brazil
2
Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV EAESP), São
Paulo, Brazil
Correspondence
Catarina Ianni Segatto, Center for
Metropolitan Studies (CEM), São Paulo, Brazil.
Email: catarina.segatto@gmail.com
Abstract
This paper analyzes how dynamics between Brazil's right‐wing populist government
and civil and uncivil organizations affected the role of civil organizations, especially
rights‐based ones, and Brazil's democratization process. These dynamics contrib-
uted to stripping policies of their progressive nature and rejecting the values of
diversity, freedom, and equality. Our analysis relies on the inhabited institutions
approach to comprehend the role of action, interaction, and meaning in institu-
tionalized spaces. We analyzed two policy fields—gender, sexual, and reproductive
rights, and ethnic and racial relations—through documents and in‐depth interviews.
Our analysis shows that Bolsonaro's government mobilized mechanisms related to
institutional changes, the replacement of actors, and their interactions to inhibit
civil society organizations' influence in policy formulation and provision and
strengthen the participation of uncivil groups, thereby legitimating conservative
ideas and discourses, and closing civic space for NGOs with rights‐based agendas.
KEYWORDS
Brazil, civil society, NGOs, social policies, uncivil society
1
|
INTRODUCTION
The literature on civil society has recently highlighted the role uncivil
actors have in supporting authoritarianism, reinforcing right‐wing
populism, and threatening democracies (Alves et al., 2021; Rogge-
band & Glasius, 2020; Ruzza, 2009; Toepler et al., 2020). However,
concept definitions are polysemic and unclear (Bob, 2011; Rogge-
band & Glasius, 2020). Our study seeks to contribute to this debate
by understanding the implications of the dynamics between right‐
wing populist governments, civil society organizations, and uncivil
organizations on the democratization process.
We analyze the Brazilian case where, since 2016, governments
have enacted conservative changes, shifting a previous policy path
focused on tackling inequalities and promoting diversity with the
participation of non‐governmental actors. In the last few decades,
guided by the 1988 Constitution, the expansion of Brazil's welfare
system relied on the participation and public funding of civil society
organizations in policy formulation and provision. This was common
in governments of different ideological views (Arretche et al., 2019).
This feature in Brazil's social‐democratic model was not just a pillar
of service provision, but of democracy itself, since it works to address
inequality (Aureliano & Draibe, 1989).
However, this changed with Jair Bolsonaro's 2018 election.
Bolsonaro was elected with the support of the military leadership and
politicians linked to more conservative Catholic and Protestant
groups (i.e. Pentecostal and Neopentecostal). The economic crisis of
2015 convinced the new middle class, which had benefitted from the
windfall of previous years, to abandon the Workers Party. This
segment of the population is characterized by conservative, religious,
meritocratic, and entrepreneurship beliefs (Fernandes et al., 2020).
This new middle class supported Dilma Roussef's impeachment in
2016 and massively supported Bolsonaro's 2018 election.
60
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Public Admin Dev. 2023;43:60–69.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pad© 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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