Opinião Pública – Vol. 32, Nº 1 2026
Articles in this issue
Author: Niels Søndergaard
The accelerated Chinese growth and foreign direct investments (FDI) since the turn of the century have fueled different domestic reactions in recipient countries. This article analyses dominant news portrayals of Chinese investments in Brazil from 2010 to 2018. News items from Brazilian newspapers with nationwide circulation are systematically examined with a specific focus on their emplotment, storylines and framing of Chinese investments. The article identifies the dominant narratives related to Chinese investment in Brazil, and introduces the notion of “narrative intersections”, which are formed as news reports combine existing narratives in the process of interpreting this phenomenon. The study contributes to improving understanding about the domestic sources of opinion formation regarding China in Brazil.
Author: Diego Sanches Corrêa
This article analyzes the process of ideological differentiation in the opinions of the Brazilian electorate following the political emergence of Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. As a result of political polarization among elites, voters were encouraged to identify themselves ideologically and adopt opinions consistent with their self-identification. To demonstrate this phenomenon, data from the Brazilian Electoral Study (ESEB) for the years 2014, 2018, and 2022 were analyzed. The data show that ideological divergences regarding two politically sensitive issues — racial quotas and the integrity of the electoral process — only became significant after gaining high public visibility, driven by public statements from Jair Bolsonaro and new right-wing elites. A similar phenomenon may have occurred with various cultural and economic issues, according to evidence from the 2022 survey. These findings suggest that the meaning of ideological labels is fluid and subject to continuous social reinterpretation.
Authors: Viviane Santa Rosa e Mehmet Ali Üzelgün
Social movements use digital media as a tool for political action. In Brazil, the Fridays for Future (FFF) movement resorted to the affordances of Instagram to reconstruct the practices from the Global North, since climate strikes had not been successful in the country. This article proposes a typology for the contentious actions adopted by FFF-Brazil. We investigated 177 posts, between June 2020 and April 2022, unrelated to the student strikes. Based on content analysis and the theory of pragmatic acts, which is capable of investigating language based on the effects it intends to have on the interlocutor, we show that the predominant actions are those we call Protests without Prior Popular Participation (PwPPP). This format was used to make online denunciations and demands; however, its main objective was not to provoke opponents, but to gain supporters and representation.
Authors: Ana Karine Pereira, Gustavo Apollo, Yasmin Oliveira Targino, Luiza de Moraes Tavares de Lima, Mariana Mota, Wallace Lopes e Daniela Rosim
What are the main environmental and climate policies of the Lula III administration? Have they led to a rebuilding of state capacities? And how does politics influence this process? Based on documents, budgetary data, personnel data, and interviews, this article identifies 23 policies and programs focused on climate change and people and forests—and efforts towards recomposition and innovation. Institutional, participatory, and budgetary advances have been made but deficits remain, such as a lack of civil servants, their attrition, poor infrastructure, and career frustrations. Politics conditions these capacities, with resistance in Congress, tensions in the governing coalition, and pressure from agribusiness. There has been substantial reconstruction, but its consolidation requires technical, political, and social coordination.
Authors: Marcelo Santos, Nadia Herrada Hidalgo e Arturo Figueroa-Bustos
This article analyzes links shared in a nationalist public WhatsApp group during an intense social outbreak in Chile in 2019. Through content analysis we assessed the quality and credibility of sources shared in the group. The findings reveal: 1) a prevalence of a subjective vision of the events; 2) a prevalence of thematic YouTube channels and personal profiles; 3) topics with critical views on migration, politicians, and the protests; and 4) an abundance of second-hand decontextualized information, and broken links. We discuss the limitations and implications of the results for democratic societies.
Authors: Martín Couto, Mar Griera e Felipe Arocena
This article examines attitudes toward abortion in South America amid accelerated legal change and moral disputes. Between 2012 and 2022, six countries made their legal frameworks towards abortion more flexible. In critical dialogue with modernization theories and their tensions in the region, we assess whether these reforms were accompanied by attitudinal change. Using World Values Survey data (waves 5–7), we found high levels of social penalization and remarkable stability in attitudes. Religiosity, age, and the importance attributed to politics emerged as key factors. The findings point to a partial and non-linear process of cultural modernization, compatible with persistent religiosities, structural inequalities, and enduring moral cleavages.