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40 Giornale di Storia Costituzionale 215 (2020)
Abuse of Rhetorical Power and Presidential Impeachment in Brazil: Reflections from Legal History

handle is hein.journals/giordi40 and id is 215 raw text is: Abuse of Rhetorical Power and Presidential Impeachment in Brazil: Reflections from Legal History RAFAEL MAFEI RARELO QUEIROZ i. Is there a limit to what presidents may say? In recent years, literature on contempo- rary threats to liberal democracy has gained ground'. Although books on the subject vary in their specific objects and diagnoses, they often converge in pointing out a cer- tain degree of affinity in the discourses of leaders, parties, and social movements that pose risks to democracies in present days. Family resemblances in the discourse of adversaries of liberal democracies are identifiable right and left of the political spectrum. The political language of these antagonists of democracy is investigated by political scientists dedicated to the top- ic of populism2. Hawkins3 points out that populism, as a discourse, has identifiable elements that allow us to empirically meas- ure the use of populist rhetoric by political leaders. They include a simplified charac- terization of society, divided into the real people and the usurping elite; and a moralistic and Manichean plot, which por- trays the former as permanent victims of the latter. As a consequence, populists will often sustain that breaking the system is a necessity that must be achieved by any available means, in order to place the gov- ernment back in the hands of the sole le- gitimate sovereign- the real people (who are of course exclusively represented by the populist leader). The inauguration of Jair Bolsonaro in 2019 inscribed Brazil in the group of new defective democracies4. Like other fel- lows in this selected (but expanding) club, his presidential pronouncements have unique traits: they are often made through informal channels (Facebook lives or tweets in his personal account) and flash media statements where he, not the jour- nalists, sets the topics of conversation. Mr. Bolsonaro often issues claims and opinions with no factual basis, or which contradict prevailing scientific and academic con- sensus - his wild claims as to the cause of fires in the Amazon Forest in August 20195 or the coronavirus pandemic in gogo6 are GIORNALE DI STORIA COSTITUZIONALE / JOURNAL OF CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY 40 / II 2020, pp. 215-226 ISSN 1593-0793 / ISBN 978-88-6056-673-7 /© eum 2o2o 215

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