When democracy divides the electorate: voting in the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections

The article investigates the effect of democratic attitudes on voting in the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections. Our hypothesis is that the context of increasing prominence of democracy as an issue starting in 2013 and, more intensely, in 2018, divided the electorate into two fields, according to greater or lesser support for democratic principles. To test it, we used a set of surveys covering Brazilian elections from 2010 to 2022. The general finding is that democratic attitudes – support for voting as a choice procedure, for the separation of powers, for political participation, to the rule of law and minority rights – are more relevant to explaining voting in 2022 than in previous elections. We also find a pattern: with the exception of political participation, there is a positive relationship between democratic attitudes and voting for one of the two main candidates, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.