Science attacks in context of democratic backsliding: An analysis of Brazil during Bolsonaro’s government

Recent literature on democratic backsliding shows how authoritarian populist leaders reshape policymaking by weakening institutions and dismantling policies. In Brazil, Bolsonaro’s presidency (2019–2022) was marked by systematic attacks on science, targeting higher education and the scientific community. This article investigates the strategies Bolsonaro used to weaken science, adopting a descriptive and mixed-methods approach: analysis of budgetary data from the Integrated Planning and Budget System, documentary evidence from the National Union of Faculty of Higher Education Institutions, and content analysis of all presidential speeches. Findings reveal a dual strategy: (a) weakening the public science infrastructure and an attack on university autonomy; and (b) discursive attacks that framed universities as sites of denied scientific consensus and subordinated science to political projects. The Brazilian case shows that policy dismantling under authoritarian populism combines material retrenchment and discursive delegitimization, using attacks on science to weaken institutions and reshape policymaking during democratic backsliding.