Conciliation, conflicts and crisis of the progressive wave in Brazil

the limits of the social and the emergence of the political

Abstract

This article aims to understand the crisis of the progressive wave (PT governments) and the strengthening of the conservative wave in Brazil in the second decade of the 21st century by analyzing the political disputes built up in this historical context. We used bibliographical research, documentary research and discourse analysis (based on the Discourse Theory developed by Laclau and Mouffe) as methodological strategies. We understand that the strategy of consensus in the center used by the PT governments has been exhausted by the intensification of tensions and antagonisms that have highlighted the limits of this strategy. The weakening of ties with left-wing actors and, at the same time, the articulation of anti-corruption, neoliberal and conservative demands with the anti-PT demand produced a crisis of consensus in the center, making explicit the division of the social in agonistic and antagonistic terms.