All the world’s a stage: campaign travels in the 1989 Brazilian presidential elections

Abstract

The 1989 Brazilian presidential elections represent one of the main milestones of
democratic consolidation in the country. As one of the most striking characteristics of that
process, several candidates spent considerable campaign time abroad. What explains this
international strategy of presidential candidates? We argue that the international trips made by the
main presidential candidates allowed them to import agendas, ideas and political figures into the
national political debate in such a way they could legitimize their own agendas at home.
International travels served as an important political platform at the Cold War’s end. This is
something particularly visible in the case of the foreign policy platform of Fernando Collor de
Mello, a politician without party traditions or previous public convictions that could shed light on
what would become government on international issues. Drawing on primary and journalistic
sources, the aim of this article is to reconstruct the narrative of the 1989 presidential race from
international issues, showing how these ideas, agendas and political figures were incorporated
into the repertoire of the main candidacies.