Physiologism and nepotism: the genealogy of five centrist leaders

Abstract

Physiologism is a term that characterizes politicians who are always in the support base of presidents, regardless of the ideological profile of the heads of the federal executive. Recently, the term “physiologism” has fallen into disuse, and it is more common to hear the term “centrão” used to refer
to politicians who support all presidents. In turn, nepotism expresses the practice of distributing
positions to relatives and favoring them in their political pretensions. In turn, nepotism expresses the
practice of distributing positions to relatives and favoring them in their political ambitions. According
to Oliveira (2012), nepotism is a relationship between power structures and kinship. In this research, we
associate physiologism and nepotism, two typical social institutions of Brazilian politics, with an investigation into the presence of these two elements in the political practices of five notable leaders of
the "centrão": José Sarney, Renan Calheiros, Jader Barbalho, Arthur Lira, and Ricardo Barros. The study
focused on the political trajectories and genealogies of these leaders. The method adopted was genealogical (OLIVEIRA, 2012). The objectives were to describe the nepotism networks built by these
politicians and understand how the transmission of political-family capital occurred throughout their
histories, as well as to determine whether this type of capital was converted into economic capital. Pierre
Bourdieu's concept of capital was a central element in the analysis and interpretation of the genealogies
studied, along with relevant contributions from Nepotism Theory. Finally, we consider that the five
politicians inherited political-family capital from their parents and passed it on to their wives, siblings,
and children. Furthermore, they studied at elite universities and converted political-family capital into
economic capital, notably in media outlets and rural properties. The leaders also control party machines
in their states, in some cases for decades. But their main power base is their permanence within the
State, where, aligned with the federal executive branch, they can instrumentalize the institutional
powers of the state apparatus for political-family favors.