Democracy In Brazil Research Articles

Democracias incompletas: El caso de Brasil

The article aims to analyze whether, after 30 years of current Brazilian democracy, political institutions will be resilient enough to deal with the consequences of an authoritarian government elected in the middle of a deep representation crisis. In other words, would this be a turn to an illiberal democracy? From an analysis of the situation, we traced a chronology of circumstances – transition from the authoritarian regime, popular dissatisfaction, critical elections of 2018 as a time of exhaustion for the New Republic, dynamics of the party dispute – that converged to the rise of ultra-right forces, elected through a democratic regime. Data referring to public perception concerning institutions, electoral results, and performance of traditional parties in recent electoral cycles (general election of 2018 and municipal election of 2020) are analyzed. We conclude that the growth of center-right parties in the 2020 municipal elections indicate that – despite the analytical correctness of the literature on the possibility of internal corrosion of democracies by nationalist neopopulism – the thesis regarding incidental rulers has strong evidence visible in Brazil.

Jessica A. J. Rich, State-Sponsored Activism: Bureaucrats and Social Movements in Democratic Brazil (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. xv + 240, £75.00 hb.

Jessica A. J. Rich, State-Sponsored Activism: Bureaucrats and Social Movements in Democratic Brazil (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. xv + 240, £75.00 hb. - Volume 53 Issue 4

Anti-gender politics and the authoritarian turn in Brazil

In 2018, Jair Bolsonaro, a former captain and congressman known for his racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks, was elected president of Brazil. His election shocked political analysts, representing the major setback in the Brazilian democracy since the end of the military rule in the 1980’s. The present work analyses the social actors and the political processes behind the rise of Bolsonaro to power. It focuses on the role of anti-gender politics in the recent authoritarian turn. Borrowing some insights from the Protest Event Analysis methodology, the work explores the dynamics of the anti-gender protest events, their main social and political actors, repertoires of actions and demands. It also review the recent debate on the crisis of democracy and the rise of extreme right-wing movements and parties, focusing on the centrality of opposition to gender equity and LGBTQI+ rights in the rhetoric and action of conservative and far-right groups.

BETWEEN HABERMAS AND MOUFFE: WHICH MODEL OF DEMOCRACY TO BRAZIL?

The aim of this paper is to compare the political models of Jürgen Habermas and Chantal Mouffe, on the way to identify which one has the greatest possibility of practical application. In order to fulfill this proposal, the research problem is: which theory is more adequate to analyze Brazilian democracy? The hypothesis of research previously formulated, in order to be tested, is that the Habermasian model is not applicable to the current situation of Brazilian democracy, which is closer to Mouffe’s agonistic pluralism. The scientific method used was hypothetical-deductive, developing a qualitative, primarily theoretical and descriptive research. The instrumental procedures (research techniques) employed were the literature review (selected, respectively, by the criteria of relevance, accessibility and topicality), documentary material and operational categories and concepts. It was concluded that disparities in factors such as Education and Income make it impossible to construct a communicational "middle level", moving away from the ethical-rational procedurality that guides the deliberative democracy model. On the other hand, the permeability of the political dimension and the plurality of external factors reinforce antagonisms and hegemonic relations, pointing to the proximity of Brazilian democracy with Mouffe's model.

DESENVOLVIMENTO COMO UM DIREITO HUMANO E SUA RELAÇÃO COM A DEMOCRACIA

The purpose of this article is to treat development as a human right established in the 1986 Declaration on the Right to Development approved by the United Nations General Assembly, its close relation with democracy and constitutional concretization in Brazil. By Resolution No. 41/128 of 1986, the Assembly approves the Declaration on the Right to Development stating the right to development as an inalienable human right. Development, no longer seen as a synonym for economic growth, now represents an economic, social, cultural and political process, with expansion of freedoms and sustainability (both quantitative and qualitative aspects). In Brazil, the Federal Constitution of 1988 determined national development as a fundamental objective of the Republic (art. 3, II). Due to Generality and programmatic nature, development takes on a dimension of principle that needs more concrete normative structuring, which, consistent with the 1986 Declaration of development as an active participation of the people, Brazilian democracy offers a vote, referendum, plebiscite and popular initiative of laws for the constitutional realization of a developmental objective. The study method is hypothetical-deductive, with a qualitative approach, supported by bibliographic and documentary research. It is concluded that there is a consolidation of the right to development as an inalienable human right, of political, civil, economic, social and cultural legal aspects (in interrelation and synergy), still representing a fundamental objective of the Brazilian Republic to be achieved by constitutional strength, in which the people are protagonists in the process, which has democratic tools.

Democracy, Populism, and Political Identity: a brief essay of the actual political context in Brazil and threats to the Brazilian 2022 elections / Democracia, populismo e identidade política: um breve ensaio sobre o contexto político atual no Brasil e as ameaças às eleições brasileiras de 2022

Brazil lives a challenging moment due to a political crisis, which has started in 2016 with the ex-President Dilma´s impeachment, aggravated by the problem in the public health system in reason of unsuccessful measures of our political representatives, mainly President Jair Bolsonaro, in the fight against the pandemic of Covid-19. This political crisis harms the "newbie" Brazilian democracy; populism is at its center. The struggles by power carried out by the varieties of political identities have been determinant factors. Brazil does not get out of this spiral of problems in which it is involved. The interaction of democracy, populism, and political identity has an essential role in the current constitutional period, which is installed after the Brazilian military regime (1964-1984), because, despite being a "country" with more than 500 years, Brazil is still searching for itself inside and out of its frontiers. Thus, to understand the Brazilian current political context, it is necessary to analyse it from different cracks: this unpretentious essay tries to do so.

Brazil: A Biography

Brazil: A Biography

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Democracy in Brazil

Some claim that an erosion of democracy is occurring worldwide. There are also questions on the scope of the crisis, which countries are affected, and how to reverse it. The Covid-19 pandemic may have fostered disagreements, deepened rifts, and contributed to the definitive crystallisation of the crisis, but it may also have engendered more moderate and compliant attitudes given the need to unify around the response to common threat. We explore the current dilemmas of democracy in the Brazilian case, focusing on how regime legitimacy, authoritarian attitudes, and support for a populist, authoritarian leader interact and are affected by the pandemic, using public opinion data from 2018 to 2020.

Presidents and the multiparty system in Brazil: is coalitional presidentialism doomed to fail? President Dilma Rousseff’s constitutional occupational accident and new challenges under Bolsonaro’s government

Taking as central threads the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff in August 2016 and Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency so far, the article analyses and assesses the Brazilian institutional design in the light of Juan Linz’s assumption that presidential regimes with multiple parties are a fatal combination. The recent impeachment episodes might be viewed as evidence to that effect. The institutional set-up of the Brazilian constitutional and political system seems to result – as Linz predicted – in a biased use of the traditional political machinery which exists in multiparty presidentialism. But is it actually the set-up itself that is the trigger, or do the political dynamics and the actors involved in this set-up undermine the system? Considering more recent theories, this article takes a more encompassing view of Brazilian coalitional presidentialism and its overall resilience. Adopting a broader framework for our analysis, we distinguish between endemic, structural and non-structural deficits in the presidential and multiparty system in Brazil in relation to the operation of impeachment procedures. This helps us to identify the overall value and effect of constitutional corrective mechanisms and practices which try to address the problems of multiparty presidentialism in Brazil and sheds, we believe, a somewhat more optimistic light on the development of democracy in Brazil.

Smith, Amy Erica. (2019). Religion and Brazilian Democracy. Mobilizing the People of God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 222 pages

Review of Smith, Amy Erica. (2019). Religion and Brazilian Democracy. Mobilizing the People of God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 222 pages.

Racial capitalism and epistemic injustice: Blindspots in the theory and practice of solidarity economy in Brazil

This article performs a socio-spatial analysis of the political discourse, agendas, and organizing spaces of the Solidarity Economy Movement (MSE) in Rio de Janeiro as a lens to examine how racialized power–knowledge dynamics and race-based socio-spatial inequalities can be replicated in the process of institutionalization of social movements’ agendas. It discusses adverse implications stemming from the MSE’s political choice to disproportionately focus on policy-centrism over grassroots organization as its priority strategy. It also analyses the failures of the white leadership of the movement to acknowledge Black economic traditions, Favela economies, and Black solidarity economies as pivotal experiences to understand and challenge racial capitalism.I draw on two years of participatory ethnographic research in Favela City of God and in Solidarity Economy marketplaces and political spaces across Rio de Janeiro. This paper elucidates a gap in the literature on Solidarity Economy in Brazil in terms of theorizing around race. I contend that a colorblind class-first Marxist approach, in tandem with the perversive myth of racial democracy in Brazil, underpin the movement’s conceptual shortcoming in addressing how racialization is co-constitutive of both capitalism and solidarity economies. I show how such neglect has displaced Black women favela dwellers as knowledge producers and weakened the base support of the movement in ways that is debilitating to its organizational capacity.I argue for the epistemic and political contributions that Black communities’ expertise with solidarity economies can make to critical analysis of racial capitalism and solidarity economies as well as to the endeavor of rethinking political economy.

The Brazilian Economy in the 1980s

Known as a lost decade, the 1980s marked several events in Brazil and other Latin American countries. Such events had a profound impact not only on the economy but also on Brazilian democracy. The Brazilian economy in the 1980s went through one of the most serious crises in its history, which resulted in the stagnation of gross domestic product and unprecedented inflation rates. Despite this critical economic situation, social indicators showed positive evolution. It was shown that, although Brazilian families adopted as a strategy to face this crisis the overuse of family work force in the labor market, the evolution of income and poverty in this period was unfavorable.

The impossible as matter of thought and action

The impossible as matter of thought and action” is an interview conducted in late 2020 by Elilson with Eleonora Fabião. In the context of the ongoing dismantling of democracy in Brazil, they dialogue about performance art on the streets, articulations between artistic experimentation, political imagination and social action, and the concept of “performative program”, a deprograming compositional procedure as proposed by Fabião. In order to create propositive rather than reactive modes of dealing with the colonial heritage and the rising of fascism in contemporary Brazil, aesthetical-political experimentation is considered crucial.

Homenagem: Remembering the Life and Work of Abdias Nascimento

This essay provides a brief introduction to this special issue focused on the life and work of Black Brazilian scholar-activist Abdias Nascimento. The contributors include, Vera Lucia Benedito, Ollie Johnson, Zachary Morgan, Elisa Larkin Nascimento, and Cheryl Sterling who all participated in a 2015 conference at Africana Studies at Brown University. This group of scholars aptly illustrate that Nascimento had long contributed to the internationalization of Black Studies as a field in US academe and he was crucial in establishing Brazil as a central component of the Black World. The essays have much to teach us about Nascimento’s views on the relationship between art and politics, the role of military service in shaping his activism, the significance of black politicians in the reconceptualization of Brazilian democracy, and the importance of preserving archives and expanding our understanding of the Black radical tradition.

Brazilian Democracy Facing Authoritarian Neoliberalism

This article offers an interpretation of the election of Jair Bolsonaro as President of Brazil, based on the examination of its three political drivers. First the economic and political crisis of global neoliberalism, and their implications for developing countries. Second, the cycles of the Brazilian left, which culminated in the rise and decline of the Workers’ Party (PT). Third, the global rise of an authoritarian modality of neoliberalism in developing as well as advanced economies. The article concludes with an assessment of the strengths and fragilities of the Bolsonaro administration, and the challenges facing the Brazilian left.

Populismo, Elitismo e Democracia

Nos últimos anos, tornou-se bastante popular a sugestão de que o fenômeno do “populismo” – associado a líderes políticos fortes, que apelariam para uma conexão direta com o povo como forma de contornar a autoridade das demais instituições políticas – constitui uma ameaça de primeira ordem aos regimes democráticos. De acordo com esse argumento, a melhor forma de conter essa ameaça seria fortalecer o papel das instituições de controle (tais como o Judiciário e a imprensa) na política. Neste artigo, sugerimos que, por mais sedutor que esse argumento possa parecer à primeira vista, ele apresenta uma perspectiva simplista e unidimensional sobre o problema. Para ilustrá-lo, exploramos alguns aspectos do acentuado declínio que a democracia brasileira experimentou nos últimos anos, culminando na ascensão de Jair Bolsonaro – um político que preconiza abertamente suas simpatias por um regime autoritário – à Presidência. Argumentamos que, longe de servir como barreira ao autoritarismo, as instituições de controle atuaram sistematicamente como agentes de desestabilização da democracia e, desse modo, abriram caminho para a vitória de Bolsonaro.

Brazilian Religion and Politics - Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God. By Amy Erica Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. 207. $99.99 cloth.

Brazilian Religion and Politics - Religion and Brazilian Democracy: Mobilizing the People of God. By Amy Erica Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. Pp. 207. $99.99 cloth. - Volume 78 Issue 2

O conceito de gestão social e a democracia regressiva no Brasil após 2016

Desde a Constituição de 1988 que o postulado da democracia representativa no Brasil não era o mote exclusivo para uma participação cidadã que ocorreria a cada período eleitoral, a fim de eleger representantes nas diferentes instâncias legislativas de governo – federal, estadual e municipal. Embora a partir de então a soberania popular pudesse ser exercida de forma direta e/ou participativa em interação com as diferentes instâncias legislativas e executivas e os órgãos do aparato burocrático nos diversos níveis de governo, em 2016 o contexto institucional brasileiro foi alterado sob uma perspectiva que faz dormitar os preceitos constitucionais de 1988, deixando em suspenso a possibilidade de práticas gerenciais democráticas. O presente texto, apesar de sincrônico, tem como objetivo central contextualizar o surgimento do conceito de gestão social no Brasil e verificar até que ponto o momento brasileiro pode apoiar ou impedir a prática de uma gestão comprometida com a sociedade.

“O caso do homem errado” – o cinema como instrumento de denúncias do genocídio da população negra

The present paper analyzes the fallacy of racial democracy in Brazil, studying the film The Case of the Wrong Man, documentary by Camila Moraes which investigates in detail the death of Júlio César de Melo Pinto, a black young man murdered by the police on May, 14th, 1987, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The documentary feature film was born in 2015, when the movie director was in college and taking a course on investigative journalism. Through several collected testimonies, the movie director reproduces the episodes involved in the execution of Júlio César, bringing to the film the view, the technique and the sensitivity peculiar to a black woman movie maker who reaffirms the osition of the black cinema in the space of the feminine. A documentary at the same time expository and investigative, marked by the argument that “Black lives matter”, The Case of the Wrong Man, consolidates itself as a film from within, towards from the outside. By denouncing the genocide of the Brazilian black youth, the film presents the helplessness and hopelessness of the black families in the country and reiterates the innocence of Júlio César.

State-Sponsored Activism: Bureaucrats and Social Movements in Democratic Brazil. By Jessica Rich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 252p. $105.00 cloth.

State-Sponsored Activism: Bureaucrats and Social Movements in Democratic Brazil. By Jessica Rich. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. 252p. $105.00 cloth.