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points by jonifico 4 days ago | 0 comments
I am not from Brazil, nor am I closely following its politics, but I would like to pose a genuine question: in a modern liberal democracy, doesn’t a four-term presidency represent too much power concentrated in one person?
[–] amlib 4 days ago
It's not four consecutive terms, you are only allowed 2 consecutive terms.
[–] flykespice 4 days ago
Yes it sounds worrisome, the general populace is getting fed up with him running the country for 20 years and want a fresh change of leaders.

But it doesn't help that the alternative far-right candidate is an extremist nutjob whose appointment for the presidential race was done for noone other than nepotism (bearing his jailed father name). That alienated alot of his voting base who wanted a more competent candidate.

[–] esarbe 4 days ago
In a liberal democracy with many opposing viewpoints, having to elect a single "head of government" that will be necessarily beholden to only one part of the electorate is detrimental, especially in combination with something like FPTP.

A directorate where executive power is distributed over multiple people and executive policy is decided on in a concordat it a much better solution.

[–] itubaj 4 days ago
Yes.
[–] bamboozled 4 days ago
He just got voted in, if he's doing a good job or people don't like the other guy, people will keep voting or him
[–] pilgrim0 4 days ago
no. as presidency is not a dictatorship
[–] jonifico 2 days ago
In recent Latin American history, only two presidents have served four terms: those in Venezuela and Nicaragua. Both countries turned into dictatorships after the 4th term.
[–] dlisboa 3 days ago
Not really. He has never had any real legislative power to back him. The biggest scandal surrounding his party was paying off congressmen and heads of parties in order for them to vote for welfare policies. These policies never would've been voted in if that was not the case. A lot of parties gatekeep votes for important legislation until they get handouts.

Ironically (or not at all) the man who individually received the most money from that scheme is the head of Flavio Bolsonaro's party, and the party who received the most payoff as a whole was Jair Bolsonaro's party at the time.

Politics in Brazil require a great deal of consensus, obscure dealmaking and corruption.