ABSTRACT

The partisan organization of the Brazilian right has varied in accordance with the prevailing political regime type. The civilian right had an ambiguous attitude toward democracy in the Republic of 1946, but the right was a reliable ally of the military during the authoritarian regime of 1964–1985. Although the mode of transition to democracy in the 1980s advantaged conservative elites, they fragmented into different partisan vehicles in the early years of the current regime. The larger part of the modern right is now made up of nondescript clientelistic parties that seek accommodation with the government of the day. Some programmatic elements, however, have also taken shape, leading to the emergence of an economic right, a religious right, and a law-and-order right that exhibits nostalgia for the previous authoritarian regime.