ABSTRACT
In this article, we point out how the crisis of the 1988 democratic pact originated from the new dynamics fostered by the Brazilian post-bourgeois public sphere itself, which developed in the midst of the national redemocratization process. In the first section, we briefly indicate how the public sphere in Brazil was built from 1822 until redemocratization in 1988. In the second section, we show the genesis and development of Brazil’s post-bourgeois public sphere. And, in the third and fourth sections, we describe how its crisis originated from clashes in the public debate that bypassed the institutions and mobilized counterpublicity: disruptive performances perceived as indecorous. In this sense, we argue that Jair Bolsonaro and his supporters, by fostering what we call dominant counterpublicity, puts the New Republic, again, under the Sword of Damocles.
KEYWORDS:
New right; Jair Bolsonaro; Conservative reaction; Public sphere; Counterpublicity