CIVIC BURNOUT: Emotional and Affective Effects of Political Polarization and Radicalization in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyzes the emotional and affective effects of political polarization in Brazil and introduces the concept of civic burnout as an original contribution to the debate. Civic burnout is defined here as a strategic withdrawal from public debate motivated by emotional overload in the face of a political environment perceived as exhausting at the interpersonal level and, above all, toxic at the personal level. Unlike political apathy, it conveys fatigue, exhaustion, and avoidance out of fear of conflict, rather than indifference to politics, functioning as a form of self-preservation in response to the intensification of political disputes in everyday spaces of sociability – among friends, families, workplaces, and religious communities. Based on 70 mini-focus groups with 210 voters from all regions of the country – including Bolsonaro voters (2018 and 2022), Haddad and Lula voters (2018 and 2022), and voters who switched from Bolsonaro (2018) to Lula (2022) – the findings indicate that, for many, politics has become a continuous experience of emotional strain. Civic burnout is understood as a relational phenomenon that manifests itself particularly when part of the electorate perceives the “other side” as radicalized. The results show that radicalization and civic burnout share structural causes and reveal key subjective impacts of polarization on Brazilian democracy.