The building of the Protestant agenda in Brazilian politics: parallels between the United States of America and Brazil

Abstract

:Given the strength of Protestant groups in Brazilian politics in the post-dictatorship period of 1964-85, it is important to understand their mechanism of functioning, since this may represent the break in the principle of secularism established since the first Brazilian republican constitution, in 1891. For this, it becomes imperative to understand how this group came to conquer the political strength that is granted today. Thus, this work aims to perform a historical analysis of the construction of the Protestant agenda in the Brazilian political scenario, relating to the issue of secularism in Brazil. For this, it begins with the discussion on secularism from fundamental authors on the subject and their contemporary discussions and the Brazilian particularity and, subsequently, the historical evolution of the evangelical agenda in Brazilian politics; both developed through bibliographic research of published articles. After the analysis, it was possible to perceive the existence of parallels between the way of introduction of Protestant evangelicals in American and Brazilian politics, as well as their form of transmission between the country from the north to the south.