Brazil | LSE Latin America and Caribbean

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The Brazilian prison system is undermined by gaps in authority, incentives, and accountability

The Brazilian prison system is undermined by gaps in authority, incentives, and accountability

Crises in the management of Brazilian prisons tend to be neglected by state actors who see the problem as intractable. Institutional conflicts weaken state authority, political and financial incentives for change are weak, and accountability on this issue has rarely been a priority for civil society. But some novel programmes show that much progress can be made despite this difficult terrain, writes Débora Zampier.

January 15th, 2019|Featured, Society, security, and rights|0 Comments|

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Big in 2018: our most popular articles in a turbulent year for Latin America and the Caribbean

Big in 2018: our most popular articles in a turbulent year for Latin America and the Caribbean

Taking a look at ten of our of most popular blogs from 2018, it’s clear that it has been a year of major upheaval in the region. Key issues have been the diverging populisms of AMLO’s Mexico and Bolsonaro’s Brazil, the crumbling of two-party politics in El Salvador, and the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.

But wider trends have also persisted, as reflected in China’s growing […]

January 2nd, 2019|Featured|0 Comments|

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Revolt of the peripheries in Brazil: why low-income voters in wealthy regions swung from the PT to Bolsonaro

Revolt of the peripheries in Brazil: why low-income voters in wealthy regions swung from the PT to Bolsonaro

Shifts in the social and institutional conditions of the urban peripheries of Brazil’s major cities have altered political subjectivities and weakened affinities with the once-dominant Workers’ Party of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. With a “revolt of the peripheries” brewing, Bolsonaro was able exploit his comparative rhetorical advantage and win the presidency despite making few real commitments to address the […]

December 13th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|2 Comments|

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Brazil elections 2018: the five risks facing President Bolsonaro

Brazil elections 2018: the five risks facing President Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro’s remarkable rise to the presidency has already caused a significant shake-up of Brazilian politics. But in the longer term, a looming fiscal catastrophe and sky-high expectations on crime and corruption could lead to political instability or even a constitutional crisis, writes Mark S. Langevin (George Mason University).

October 26th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|1 Comment|

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Brazil elections 2018: how will Bolsonaro’s victory affect migration policy in Brazil and South America?

Brazil elections 2018: how will Bolsonaro’s victory affect migration policy in Brazil and South America?

Jair Bolsonaro’s victory in Brazil’s 2018 presidential election could lead to a more severe migration policy, attacks on migrants’ rights, and fragmentation of regional approaches to mobility, write Marcia Vera Espinoza (Queen Mary University of London) and Leiza Brumat (European University Institute).

October 25th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|0 Comments|

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Populism in Mexico and Brazil: why are voters moving in opposite directions?

Populism in Mexico and Brazil: why are voters moving in opposite directions?

Differences in ethnic makeup, religious affiliation, institutional openness to outsiders, experiences of crime, and economic performance have driven Mexican and Brazilian voters in opposite ideological directions: left towards AMLO in Mexico and right towards Bolsonaro in Brazil. But this doesn’t mean Mexico will remain immune to right populism in future, writes Rodrigo Aguilera.

October 24th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured, Mexico under AMLO|2 Comments|

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Elites, violence, and the crisis of governance in Latin America

Elites, violence, and the crisis of governance in Latin America

Relations between the state and oligarchic elites underpin the extreme rise of violence in Latin America, despite the fact that most of its victims and perpetrators are poor: violence is as much a problem of wealth as of poverty. Jenny Pearce (LSE Latin America and Caribbean Centre) discusses her working paper for our new Violence, Security, and Peace series, Elites and Violence in Latin America: […]

October 19th, 2018|Featured, Society, security, and rights|0 Comments|

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Brazil elections 2018: the destabilising effects of breathtaking judicial discretion

Brazil elections 2018: the destabilising effects of breathtaking judicial discretion

The discretionary decisions and interminable in-fighting of Brazil’s vast and intricate judicial system have significant consequences for election outcomes, and 2018 is no exception, writes David Lehmann (Federal University of Bahia).

October 17th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|1 Comment|

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Brazil elections 2018: from conspiracy nightmares of Dilma to millennial dreams of Bolsonaro

Brazil elections 2018: from conspiracy nightmares of Dilma to millennial dreams of Bolsonaro

The poisonous political climate around the October 2018 elections in Brazil has been brewing since Dilma Rousseff’s first term. Attacks on various institutions from both left and right, combined with massive corruption and fractious culture wars, have allowed Jair Bolsonaro and his millenarian evangelical supporters to expand his personality cult into this political vacuum, writes David Lehmann (Federal University of Bahia).

September 27th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|0 Comments|

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Brazil elections 2018: who will win the race for second place behind Bolsonaro?

Brazil elections 2018: who will win the race for second place behind Bolsonaro?

With Jair Bolsonaro certain to reach the second round of Brazil’s elections in October 2018, the real issue now is which of the other 12 candidates will join him. Mark S. Langevin (George Mason University) analyses the key factors that will shape the prospects of Bolsonaro’s main rivals: Marina Silva, Geraldo Alckmin, Ciro Gomes, and especially Lula’s hand-picked candidate Fernando Haddad.

September 14th, 2018|Democracy, governance, and citizenship, Featured|5 Comments|