With Whom Does the Populist Govern? Analysis of the Cabinets of Rafael Correa, Jair Bolsonaro, and Nayib Bukele

Abstract

ln the first part of the 21st century, a wave of populist governments has swelled in Latin America. The academic literature has focused on studying the characteristics of populist leaders and on the implications of this phenomenon for democracies, leaving aside an analysis of the groups that accompany and support such figures. This article aims to fill this gap by conducting a comparative analysis of the trajectory and characteristics of the people serving in the cabinets of three presidents: Rafael Correa of Ecuador, Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. The conclusion of this study is that, in all three cases, these leaders resorted to people with a political background to make up their cabinets, thus challenging the notion of a break with traditional political elites. Nevertheless, the political context in which they came to power has a bearing on the characteristics of the group of people they have relied on to form their governments.