The Crisis of Democracy in Brazil
Description
This book fills a void in the existing literature on regime erosion and democratic backsliding by proposing a multidimensional and sequential explanation for the emergence of crisis of democracy using one of the most populous democracies in the world as a case study: Brazil. The book argues that long- and short-term factors combine to explain how democratic systems enter phases of profound instability, increasing system unpredictability and the resurgence of reinvigorated authoritarian enclaves in society.
Brazil is an interesting case because it has been portraited by the extant literature as an example of success among Third Wave Democracies in making progress towards a stable regime. Against such interpretations, this book presents evidences that unresolved dilemmas in the transition to democracy during the 1970's became ever more pressing and evident as the system has been shaken by unprecedented political and economic crisis. The vulnerability of Brazilian democracy became explicit with successive episodes that accumulated over the years, especially since 2013, leading to and being crowned by the coming to power of Jair Bolsonaro, a conservative, extreme-right wing President, with clear authoritarian tendencies. Ultimately, as the book narrates, several events that have taken place over the past decade question any idea of normality in the system and that institutions work. Business simply has not been conducted as usual in Brazilian democracy.
The Crisis of Democracy in Brazil will be of interest to researchers in the fields of political science and political sociology interested in studying democratic backsliding and the current crisis of democracy all over the world by presenting a case study of how this crisis affected one of the largest democracies in the world.
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Leonardo Avritzer was professor at the Department of Political Science of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil, and is senior visiting researcher at the Institute of Social and Political Studies (IESP), Brazil. Avritzer received his Ph.D. in political sociology from the New School for Social Research. He has published extensively on civil society and participation in Brazil. He is the author of many books among them "Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America" and "Participatory Institutions in Democratic Brazil". He published in several journals among them Comparative Politics, Latin America Research Review, International Journal of Regional and Urban Research, Journal of Public Deliberation, Opinião Pública and Revista Dados. He was visiting professor at the University of Coimbra, University of Tulaine and Colegio de Mexico. He is the coordinator of Instituto da Democracia (Institute of Democracy), a research project based in four large public universities that surveys Brazilians on democratic habits and monitors social networks. His book "O Pendulo da Democracia no Brasil" won the Brazilian Political Association award of best book of the year.
Lucio R. Renno is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Political Science of the University of Brasília (2006-present), Brazil. He was Provost for Graduate Studies (2021-2024) and Director of the Institute of Political Science (2020). He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh (2004). Between 2015 and 2018, he was President of the Federal District Planning Company (Codeplan). He served as Assistant Professor at the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona (2005-2006) and as a postdoctoral researcher at the State University of New York - Stony Brook (2004-2005) and at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany (2009-2010; 2011; 2013). He has been a visiting professor at Frei Univesitat, Berlin, Germany, and holds the Sergio Buarque de Holanda Chair at the Center for Latin American Studies; Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; Yokohama National University, Yokohama, Japan; University of Texas, Austin; Vanderbilt University, Tennessee; and University of Oxford, United Kingdom. He publishes on legislative politics, electoral behavior, and public opinion.
Content
Chapter 1: The Dynamics of Democratic Backsliding in Young Democracies.- Chapter 2: Transition to democracy in Brazil: from democratic construction (1985-2012) to backsliding (2013-onward).- Chapter 3: The Brazilian Army and the Failed Democratization Pact of Self-Restraint.- Chapter 4: Institutional Change and Governability in Brazil.- Chapter 5: The New Prerogatives of the Judicial System, Judicial Politicization, and Democracy in Brazil.- Chapter 6: Bolsonarismo: Popular Support for Bolsonaro and Issue Positions in Contemporary Brazil.- Chapter 7: Conclusion: 2023 and the difficult quick come back.