Vieira, O. V. (2024). Battle of powers. Wilson Center & FGV São Paulo Law School.
n the epilogue of Battle of Powers, Oscar Vilhena Vieira argues that Brazil’s democracy survived the Bolsonaro era because constitutional institutions—above all the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) and the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE)—embraced a role of defensive democracy. From 2019 to 2022, Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right populism produced intense polarization, attacks on science and vulnerable groups, systematic delegitimation of elections, and repeated incitement against constitutional authorities, culminating in the failed coup attempt of January 8, 2023. Rather than classic “abusive constitutionalism,” Brazil experienced what Vieira terms authoritarian infralegalism: a gradual erosion driven by executive abuse of ordinary legal tools and persistent pressure for military intervention. In this context, civil society mobilization, media vigilance, and coalition presidentialism mattered—but the decisive factor was the STF’s refusal to remain democratically neutral in the face of existential threats. Drawing on the tradition of militant democracy, Vieira defends the view that when majoritarian emotionalism turns against the constitutional order itself, courts must actively protect democracy, because a democracy that cannot defend itself risks being destroyed by those who exploit its own rules.