Populism Trumps Ideology

Poverty Relief Policy under Mexico's López Obrador and Brazil's Bolsonaro

Bibliographic Data

ID3264252
AuthorsFabián A Borges (0000-0003-4867-0532, California State University, San Bernardino, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume57
Issue1
Pages135-160
Publication date2025-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x25000185
OpenAlexW4410618395
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited6

Understanding how policy design and implementation differ under populist and non-populist governments is complicated by the fact that populism never exists in a pure form and is always attached to a more developed ideology. Leveraging the near-simultaneous election of left-wing populist Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Mexico and right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, this article analyses populism's effect on cash transfer programmes. Despite the diametrically opposed ideologies of their presidents, rather than diverging, Mexican and Brazilian cash transfer policies converged under populism. Both leaders rebranded the programmes they inherited and moved policy in an improvised, politicised and clientelistic direction

Economics · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Poverty · Income, Poverty, and Inequality · International Development and Aid · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America

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