The unlikely president

In this paper we use surveyed data to understand Bolsonaro’s electorate and, in doing so, we discuss significant interpretations about the conditions to the rise of populist politicians. In the first section, we present and discuss macro interpretations that resort either to socioeconomic or political culture processes in order to explain populism. In the second part, we describe, briefly, Jair Bolsonaro’s political career and show why he is an authentic member of the populist family. In the third and fourth sections, we present survey data on Bolsonaro’s voters, their socioeconomic features, and their beliefs regarding political regimes and democratic institutions, and contending moral issues. We argue that data show that the president social bases are not those the current literature relates to populist leaders and that their attitudes towards politics and moral issues do not differ significantly from those found among supporters of other candidates running for the presidency in 2018. In the conclusions, we suggest some alternative explanations to Bolsonaro’s unexpected electoral success.