Bolsonaro’s Increasing Electoral Mischief
Posted inInstitutional 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...
May 11, 2022Posted inInstitutional, Judiciary, Politics1 Comment
The Brazilian Environment on Trial
Posted inEnvironment 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...
April 15, 2022Posted inEnvironment, Judiciary, Politics
Is There Public Support for the Brazilian Supreme Court in a Time of Crisis?
Posted inInstitutional Judiciary Politics

Is There Public Support for the Brazilian Supreme Court in a Time of Crisis?

The political crisis in Brazil has escalated in recent weeks, and increasingly put the Supreme Court (STF) in the crosshairs of the President. In early August 2021, the Supreme Court (STF) responded to a request by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) to investigate Jair Bolsonaro for disseminating fake news about the use...
September 21, 2021Posted inInstitutional, Judiciary, Politics
Reflections on Bolsonaro’s Brazil
Posted inJudiciary Politics Social

Reflections on Bolsonaro’s Brazil

In case you missed it, American University's AULA Blog has posted two good reflections on Bolsonaro's Brazil in recent days: Ingrid Fontes, a senior at American University, writes about the Bolsonaro administration’s devastatingly incompetent response to the pandemic, showing Brazil’s comparatively high death rate and low vaccination rate, as well...
June 2, 2021Posted inJudiciary, Politics, Social
Don’t Count on the Amazon
Posted inEnvironment Foreign Policy Judiciary

Don’t Count on the Amazon

Can the international community rely on carbon sequestration in the Amazon as a strategy for halting global warming? Don’t count on it, even after Jair Bolsonaro’s grudging green conversion this past week.  Convincing Bolsonaro to change his tune must have been no small task, judging by the ratcheting up of...
April 23, 2021Posted inEnvironment, Foreign Policy, Judiciary2 Comments
“The Organization”: Corruption and Business
Posted inEconomics Judiciary Politics

“The Organization”: Corruption and Business

This weekend I finished Malu Gaspar’s definitive history of the Odebrecht case (A Organização: A Odebrecht e o esquema de corrupção que chocou o mundo; Companhia das Letras 2020). While not an academic book, it offers an insightful and page-turning perspective on the evolution of business-state relations in Brazil over...
March 16, 2021Posted inEconomics, Judiciary, Politics
The Rise of the PCC
Posted inJudiciary Social

The Rise of the PCC

This month, the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies (CLALS) and InSight Crime published a comprehensive report on the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), which has grown from 8 members in 1993 to a transnational criminal organization totaling more than 30 thousand members today. Together with the report, InSight...
December 28, 2020Posted inJudiciary, Social