The end of the embarrassed right? The actions of the “evangelical” and “bullet” caucuses and the paths of conservative representation in Brazil

Abstract

In the last few years, the reaction of right-wing/conservative groups towards “progressive agendas” has become one of the topics that has sparked the greatest interest among Brazilian researchers in the field of Political Science. This article seeks to contribute to the debate, analyzing the activity of leaders in the Lower House who are tied to the main vectors of this conservative agenda: the “evangelical” and “bullet” caucuses. Therefore, this article examines the speeches and bills formulated by congressmen between 2010 and 2017 arguing that, if it's too soon to state that the “embarrassed right” phenomena is losing strength in the Lower House, it is feasible to suggest that there is a group of representatives gaining significance who are active and ideological, who are relatively disconnected from the traditional political families in Brazil, and who are able to openly mobilize identity categories associated with the right and/or conservatism.

conservatism; right; evangelical caucus; bullet caucus; speeches