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POLITICAL IMPACTS OF EDUCATION: FROM THE BELIEF IN A NEW CITIZEN TO BOLSONARO’S ELECTION

ABSTRACT

Studies on right-wing populism suggested that, in the Brazilian presidential election of 2018, the better educated would avoid voting for Jair Bolsonaro, given his authoritarian values and diversity rejection. Nevertheless, the polls have pointed to a positive association between educational attainment and voting for the radical candidate. Analyzing data from the Brazilian Electoral Study (Eseb), this paper presents evidence that educational attainment levels hardly differentiated the choice of the electorate, when other sociodemographic dimensions were controlled. The hypothesis of fading educational effects over political behavior has been investigated, but the most promising explanation is that impacts that must be attributed to economic well-being – which was a consistent predictor of the vote for the far right in 2018 – had been “captured” by education in bivariate analyses.

Keywords
Education; Political behavior; Right-wing populism; Brazilian presidential election of 2018; Brazil

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