IURD AND REPUBLICANOS: RELIGION, POWER AND POLITICAL-ELECTORAL EXPANSION IN CONTEMPORARY BRAZIL

Abstract

This article analyzes the political-electoral activity of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus – IURD) through its articulation with the Republicanos party in contemporary Brazil. The objective is to examine how this relationship contributed to the institutional expansion of the party and to the consolidation of a specific form of religious presence in Brazilian party politics. Methodologically, this is a qualitative, historical-analytical and documentary study, combined with the systematization of electoral data and discourse analysis. The corpus includes data from the Superior Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral – TSE), information from the Inter-Union Department of Parliamentary Advisory (Departamento Intersindical de Assessoria Parlamentar – DIAP), party documents, institutional works of the IURD, public records and complementary sources for historical and political contextualization. The study mainly engages with Mariano (2005), Oro (2003a; 2003b), Bourdieu (1989; 2007), Foucault (1999), Schmitt (2009) and Mouffe (2015), as well as recent literature on religion, politics and the reconfiguration of the Brazilian right. The results indicate significant growth of Republicanos between 2006 and 2022, reflected in the increase in legislative seats, votes for proportional and executive offices, party affiliations and municipal presence. The analysis also points to the convergence between religious mobilization, party organization and discursive repertoires of political antagonism, especially after 2016. It concludes that the data indicate a strong association between religious capillarity, party structure and electoral performance; nevertheless, the relationship between IURD and Republicanos constitutes a complex political-institutional construction, distant from any mechanical or linear control.