IDEAS AND PUBLIC POLICY: THE BOLSONARO ADMINISTRATION (2019–2022) AND THE TRANSNATIONAL INFLUENCE OF THE FAR RIGHT

Abstract

Ideas play a fundamental role in the formulation and reformulation of public policies, shaping policy diagnoses, political agendas, and institutional choices. In recent years, ideas have acquired a transnational dimension as they have crossed national boundaries and become embedded in networks that mobilize them for political purposes. This article examines how ideas and ideological repertoires disseminated through transnational far-right networks were appropriated by government actors during the Bolsonaro administration (2019–2022) and informed processes of public policy formulation and reformulation in Brazil. The article’s main contribution is to show that these ideas did not merely provide normative orientations for policy action. Rather, they constituted instruments of political contestation over legitimacy and power, contributing to an ideological reorientation of the Brazilian state through the reformulation of public policies.