AU Brazil Research Initiative – Brazil Research Initiative

Warming Back Up to Democracy? Democratic Thermostatics and Brazil’s 2022 Presidential Election

Latin American presidents get re-elected at extremely high rates. Yet incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro finds himself in a dogfight against his rival, former president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, in October’s presidential electoral contest. Why? The pandemic, the economy, and environmental policy may be partially to blame. But could...

By Ryan E. Carlin, Laura Beghini Chelidonopoulos, and Gabriel Miller August 10, 2022Institutional, Politics

Institutional Politics

Threats to the Freedom of Information Act on its Tenth Birthday

[Today's post is a translation of an op-ed that appeared in the Folha de S. Paulo] Organizational secrecy constitutes the first refuge of corruption, incompetence, and inefficiency. In this sense, perhaps the single most important advantage that democracies have over other forms of government is their ability to limit secrecy...

By Gregory Michener and Francisco Gaetani May 16, 2022Institutional, Politics

Institutional Judiciary Politics

Bolsonaro’s Increasing Electoral Mischief

In their influential 2018 book “How Democracies Die” Levitsky and Ziblatt argued that rather than staging an open coup, modern leaders may subvert the democratic process by repeatedly undermining institutions. In the runup to the October election, Bolsonaro appears to be following their script closely, and his electoral mischief continues...

By Mateus Ribeiro da Silva May 11, 2022Institutional, Judiciary, Politics1 Comment

Environment Judiciary Politics

The Brazilian Environment on Trial

Since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, Brazil has experienced numerous environmental disasters, including the rupture of a tailings dam in Minas Gerais, wide-reaching oil spills on the northeastern coast, and a sharp increase in wildfires throughout the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands. International perceptions of Brazil's environmental performance have also...

By Mateus Ribeiro da Silva April 15, 2022Environment, Judiciary, Politics

Institutional Politics

Bolsonaro’s Troubling Outreach to the Military

President Jair Bolsonaro has been an avid supporter of the Brazilian military throughout his career. This is not surprising, given that he is a former army captain and an apologist for the military regime that governed the country until 1985. But recent events suggest that the President’s extensive outreach to...

By Barbara Uehara April 4, 2022Institutional, Politics

Foreign Policy Politics

China’s Campaign for Brazilian Hearts

China's cultural influence in Latin America remains understudied. While there are many good analyses of its rising economic heft in the Western Hemisphere, our understanding of China’s public diplomacy efforts and its cultural outreach is incipient. With the aim of beginning to address this gap, American University's Center for Latin American...

By Mateus Ribeiro da Silva March 18, 2022Foreign Policy, Politics

Foreign Policy

Brazil’s Kremlin Convolutions

Bolsonaro’s engagement with Putin in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine was bizarre, to say the least.

By Matthew Taylor February 25, 2022Foreign Policy

Politics

Splintering Parties and the Governance Challenge

The hyperfragmentation of the Brazilian party system is unparalleled. The party system has splintered repeatedly over the years, with 24 parties currently represented in the lower house of Congress and 33 parties registered at the electoral court at last count. The effective number of parliamentary parties – a standard measure of parties to seats – has...

By Matthew Taylor January 18, 2022Politics