Politics, Pentecostals, and Democratic Consolidation

One of the most controversial subjects amongst Brazilian political scientists is the wave of Evangelical and specifically Pentecostal religious activism in the country since the mid-1980s and its relative influence in the consolidation of a Brazilian democracy. In 1980, Evangelicals made up about 7.8 percent of the Brazilian population. In 2000, this number was up to 15 percent and the numbers continue to increase. The place where one can observe the relationship between Pentecostal growth and democracy is in the formal political participation of Pentecostal and Evangelical politicians as their growth is largely evident in Brazil’s Congress. This paper will analyze why and how a country which had virtually no history of religious cleavages within the party system, has seen the sudden proliferation of Evangelical and Pentecostal politicians moving into formal politics. It will also address why Pentecostal movements in Brazil’s Congress have been successful, specifically those tied to Brazil’s liberal party, the PL. Although Pentecostal growth was simultaneous to the growth of Progressive Catholic Base Communities in the 1970s and 1980s, Pentecostals politically mobilized their religious followings in a way that Catholi