Democracy Decline and the Case of Brazil

The global trend of democracy decline can be perceived in our society in the last few years, countries that came to be considered consolidated democracies fell upon the events of backsliding, meaning that aspects that served as pillars or common perceptions of a democratic society are being corroded by their own means, from the inside, among them the existence of checks and balances on governments. Elected leaders act not in the interest of society and democracy but in the interest of their hold on power or of their party's power, tactics of inflating a polarized society, compromising competition and participation in elections are common examples. Now we rarely see democracy ending by means of coup d'etat, they are slowly fading, therefore, in such a context, the present thesis seeks to discuss the scholars' conceptualization of democratic decline and work upon their framework, fitting it to academically agreed cases of decline such as Hungary, Poland, Venezuela, and Turkey, to then demonstrate the similarity of the framework and these cases to the scenario of Brazil in the period preceding Bolsonaro and then of his government, that came to an end after the 2022 elections.