Political Family Clans: Portrait of the limits of democracy in contemporary Brazil

Abstract

This article presents theoretical reflections on the influence of political family clans in electoral results until today, which is the result of a symbiosis that involves the culture of favor, political marketing and economic power. This condition suggests a revision of our colonial roots and a register of the incomplete nature of the bourgeois modernization process. The objective of the reflection is to help understand the institutional and political crisis that provoked the loss of the presidential mandate of Dilma Rousseff in 2016 through a parliamentary, media and legal coup. The analysis is based on a bibliographic study in the context of a study about political family clans in the state of Ceará. By considering other studies about Brazil, the scope of family influence in various spheres of public power can be seen. In these terms, it concludes by recognizing the fragility of Brazilian democracy, which is accentuated by a new neoliberal cycle that threatens to reduce social and labor rights.