The hope for a democratization of international relations through a liberal-democratic diffusion of the democratic rule of law following the fall of the Berlin Wall is now in crisis both in the older democracies and in the new governments that have left authoritarian regimes. On a global scale, there is a crisis —more or less accentuated depending on the nations— of political liberalism, and an advance of populism and economic liberalism. Brazil, after thirty years of a democratic transition in the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, which has had more continuities than ruptures, is entering in a new political period after the institutional coup that overthrew President Dilma in 2016, President Lula’s arrest in 2018 and the rise of the Bolsonaro administration in 2019. This essay is an attempt to analyze the Brazilian political conjuncture from Bobbio’s school of thought, identifying some of the reasons for the crisis of political liberalism and the rise of extreme right populism and economic liberalism: the weakness of the transition from dictatorship to democracy, which precludes national reconciliation and a shared vision of past and present; the relevant political role of the armed forces, with popular support and the fight against corruption leading to a judicialization of politics and a politicization of the judiciary. Furthermore the growth of criminal and political violence, which increases fear and authoritarian solutions; the media monopoly that prevents public and contradictory debate; the abuse of social networks that spread fake-news and preclude dialogue and tolerance; the ideological struggle against human rights and ideologies considered dangerous («communism», «gender theory», «feminism»); the presence of religious fundamentalism that threatens the secularity of the state; the neoliberal economic policies that increase the already great social inequalities. Together, these elements raise the central question: is Brazil still a democracy or a state of exception? Is political liberalism alive, or are we watching the last chapters of this glorious tradition? Brazil will be a good laboratory in the coming months to answer this question
