Left-wing hegemony in associations and NGOs favors dominance of the state machine

In the struggle for representativeness in the spheres of public power, the right has come up against a reality that has barely changed even after the four years of the government of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL): the overwhelming hegemony of the left in associations, NGOs, think tanks and institutes with influence within the state machine.

Since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) assumed the Presidency, the PT has been quick to set up new structures that expand the involvement of groups of this type with the State. One of the government’s focuses has been to increase what the left calls “civil society participation” – which translates, in practice, into opening the doors of the Brazilian State to representatives of entities with a leftist bias in collegiate bodies, ministries’ secretariats , public hearings and other contexts, as specialists in their fields.

Whether in terms of quantity or ability to influence, organizations of this type with values ​​associated with the right have much less strength in Brazil. The discrepancy is reflected, among other things, in the difficulty of composing cadres in the Executive during a right-wing government like Bolsonaro’s; in Lula’s government, graduates of associations, NGOs and other civil society entities command various portfolios and populate the ministries.

It is not only in the Executive, however, that this has an impact. At the public hearing on the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet held in March by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), for example, the predominance of associations with a leftist bias was clear. The discussions, as a result, leaned much more towards the defense of methods of control and censorship on the networks than towards the support of freedom of expression.

In some important judgments of the Court, there is a strong predominance of friend curiae aligned with left-wing views, which is not necessarily a reflection of a biased selection of ministers. In ADPF 442, which attempts to decriminalize abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy, there is a clear imbalance in the number of subscribers, as shown in a report by People’s Gazette.

In the Executive, even before Lula assumed the Presidency, associations and NGOs were perpetuated in collegiate bodies that serve the state apparatus. During the Bolsonaro government, the National Council for Women’s Rights (CNDM) was composed of pro-abortion entities, extremist feminists and defenders of gender ideology. This can be explained, in part, by the closed nature of the votes that elect new members; but, to some extent, the homogeneous ideological bias is also due to the lack of alternatives among the candidates.

The right knows how to associate like the left, but needs to specialize, says institute leader

In the opinion of Lucas Berlanza, president of the Liberal Institute, what most hinders the right is not the inability to associate, but the “lack of structure and specialization”. “Brazil, in general, has a very deficient associative culture, but I don’t think that liberals and conservatives suffer from this problem in particular”, he says. “I believe that there is one more combination of lack of structure and specialization to work in certain environments and, naturally, lack of personnel, both in the field of financing and in the field of intellectual articulation”, he adds.

The “amateurism” of the right in this context contrasts with the perspicacity of certain actions on the left, which infiltrates radically ideological organizations into the state machine even in apparently well-intentioned initiatives.

At the end of March, Minister Flávio Dino, of Justice and Public Security, launched a public notice with the express objective of allocating up to R$ 6 million to civil society organizations that promote actions aimed at women who use drugs or who suffer the impact of trafficking. , especially black and indigenous women. One of the organizations participating in the public notice launch event was the Black Initiative for a New Drug Policy, which works with the controversial concept of “harm reduction” (understand this article) and is one of the largest funded in Brazil by the Open Society Foundations , by George Soros.

For Berlanza, the disorganization of the right can be an important problem, but it is not the only explanation for the hegemony of the left in civil society organizations. “There are plenty of reasons for dissenting voices to feel intimidated and discouraged in the spheres of expression of the intelligentsia. Leaders in the university environment are associated with left-wing ideas and collectivism, mobilizing all kinds of pressure and embarrassment against those who do not subscribe to their sermons”, he comments.

The solution to this, in his view, is “to be present in each space” that is opened with the aim of “ensuring that our agendas will gain relevance and consolidate a current of opinion in the country”.

“Often, when you participate in a television or radio program that is not specifically aimed at an audience that does not have the same ideas as ours, for example, you can see the return of satisfied viewers with the effort to pluralize the discussion It is clear that many already shared our conceptions, but, in any case, they have the satisfaction of finding them represented where normally they would not have a place”, he observes.