ABSTRACT
This chapter undertakes an effort to understand and define the central and the distinctive features of Brazilian illiberalism, in its new and refined version known as Bolsonarism. It identifies three distinctive traits of this form of illiberalism. First, although its social base is significantly plural, its supporters share an ethical ideal type of the model citizen. Second, Brazilian illiberalism is immersed in multi-party presidential federalism, in which government capacity relies on a delicate relationship with the legislative branch. Third, Brazilian illiberalism emerges from a distinctively complex relationship between the executive branch and the judiciary, where: (i) the executive, up to this point, has comparatively less control of the courts in Brazil than in other typically illiberal countries; and (ii) the executive derived part of its legitimacy from persistent judicial activism, often lacking sound legal justification on matters of constitutional and criminal law.
