From Difference to Equivalence: Laclaunian Hypotheses on Jair Bolsonaro’s Legislative Trajectory

Abstract

The object of this article is Jair Messias Bolsonaro’s legislative. Therefore, we will present the result of research that categorized the 162 bills he formulated over seven consecutive mandates in the lower house of the National Congress, the Chamber of Deputies. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches to identify the thematic and temporal dispersion of his legislative output, we will also analyze speeches and votes in the Plenary. By doing so, we aim to dialogue with the literature about formulating hypotheses concerning the factors that allowed Bolsonaro to expand the range of those relating to his speeches on top of his original electoral base: military and public security agents. Thus, based on Laclaunian and Ideational approaches to the concept of populism, we were able to identify the central points that attracted new social segments to bolsonarism, organizing them in shaping a political subject with hegemonic aspirations.

legislative trajectory; populism; parliamentary speech; Jair Bolsonaro; Ernesto Laclau