Episode Details

On corruption & anti-corruption.

When Bolsonaro won in 2018, he rode a wave of anti-corruption sentiment. Now he's doled out billions in pork via a secret budget, but this doesn't seem to bother his supporters. What happened?

Benjamin Fogel, who studies the history of corruption in Brazil, comes on to discuss how a moralistic account of corruption has fortified the far right. How has corruption been used as a political weapon in the past, and how has it shifted from right to left and back again?

How are scandals made rather than born? And what would an anti-corruption politics that is emancipatory look like – rather than the predominant technocratic or moralistic form today?

Readings:

• Against Anti-Corruption, Benjamin Fogel, Jacobin
• From Anti-Politics to Authoritarian Restoration in Brazil, Alex Hochuli, Jacobin