Geoffrey Pleyers is a researcher at the FNRS and professor of sociology at the Catholic University of Louvain, where he directs the research group SMAG - Social Movements in the Global Era and the interdisciplinary research group on Latin America (GRIAL). He is vice-president for research of the International Sociological Association. His main publications include the books Alter-Globalization. Becoming Actors in the Global Age (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2011) and Movimientos sociales en el siglo XXI (Buenos Aires, CLACSO, 2018) and articles such as "A guerra dos deuses no Brasil. Da teologia da libertação à eleição de Bolsonaro" (Educação & Sociedade, 2020) and "The pandemic is a battlefield. Social movements during the covid-19 lockdown" (Journal of Civil Society, 2020). He has coordinated fifteen books or journal issues, including, with Breno Bringel, Alerta Global. Politics and movements in the face of the pandemic (CLACSO, 2020).

Coloquios interdisciplinarios

Commentary to the colloquium "The Evangelical People: Hegemonic Construction, Minority Disputes and Conservative Reaction" by
  • Joanildo Burity
― Go to main text

Conservative Evangelicals And Politics: Some Lessons In The Case Of Brazil

  • Geoffrey Pleyers

Keywords: Brazil, conservatism, evangelicals, neo-pentecostals, religion and politics, evangelical vote.

[drpcap]C[/dropcap]onservative religious actors assumed a growing political prominence in Brazil and contributed to the election of Jair Bolsonaro. Complementing the political lessons of this rise, this article focuses on four analytical lessons. The first section challenges the idea of an "evangelical vote." The second part disputes the relevance of religious affiliation as a central analytical category for apprehending the phenomenon. The third part recalls that a central factor in this political rise is to be found in an eschatological shift. The fourth section questions the radical opposition between progressive governments and conservative religious actors.