Gore Capitalism and Necropolitics in Brazil’s Malgovernance of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive human suffering just as much as it heightened pre-existing socio-economic and political issues. Brazil, where over 700,000 people perished, offers one of the starkest cases as Black and Indigenous lives were particularly neglected through a hands-off approach. While commonly characterized as mismanagement, we argue that the Bolsonaro administration’s strategy instead represents a case of malgovernance—where deliberate (in)action rather than technical inaptitude accounts for the policies adopted. We draw from detailed account-taking of the government’s actions (and calculated inactions) throughout 2020 to 2022 to offer an elaborate analysis of Brazil’s case through the lens of necropolitics and gore capitalism. We expose how a libertarian self-reliance ethic, with racist undertones, joined together with boundless capital accumulation to create a social Darwinist approach to the handling of COVID-19 in Brazil. The malgovernance of the pandemic thus reveals deeper issues that in time may become manifest in newer, grimmer forms.