An autopsy of Brazil’s party system

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
[…]
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity

W.B. Yeats, “The Second Coming”

The Brazilian party system is dead. There are more suspects than in an Agatha Christie novel – yet the police also think it might have been suicide. The October 7 general elections represented the biggest anti-establishment wave since the country’s return to democracy 30 years ago.

The main players – the Workers’ Party, Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) and the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) party – suffered their biggest defeats ever, and were overwhelmed by the rise of presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro and the conservative tsunami he spearheaded.  

The far right is up, the left is down, and the center collapsed. 

The body count

Voters’ anger with traditional political parties was loud and clear. The House will undergo its highest renewal rate in 20 years (47.3 percent). In the Senate, it will be the biggest in history (85 percent). We will have 30 different parties in Congress, a record-setting level of fragmentation. In major states such as Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, voters placed outsiders as the frontrunners for the second round of state governments.

It is easy to understand why voters are so disappointed with the political system. In the 2010s, Brazil underwent its worst recession on record, with rampant unemployment and a general feeling of fear about the future. Operation Car Wash revealed the details of the corruption schemes that many Brazilians blame...