Vladyslav Butenko
Vladyslav Butenko argues that Brazil’s presidential race is not a contest over the size of the welfare state. Lula offers protection through cash transfers. Flávio Bolsonaro offers protection from crime. The 25 October runoff will test which promise voters trust At first glance, Brazil’s current election looks like a repeat of 2022, when Lula da […] Read more
Gülşen Doğan
Brazil’s 2026 election has put the Bolsonaro family within reach of the presidency again. Gülşen Doğan argues that the deeper story concerns what Lula’s 2022 victory and Jair Bolsonaro’s later conviction did not settle. Democratic institutions can constrain a leader without extinguishing the movement built around him In 2022, Brazilian voters removed Jair Bolsonaro from […] Read more
Nicolás E. Salvoni
Tensions between Argentina and Brazil after Javier Milei's remarks warning Brussels not to 'restrict' the newly signed EU-Mercosur trade deal with safeguards have revived speculation about Mercosur's future. But Nicolás Salvoni explains why withdrawal remains unlikely. Here, he uses trade data to show why smaller economies – and Argentina's auto industry – would bear the sharpest costs, while Brazil's would be lower Read more
Tim Pires Alves
After almost twenty years of democratic decline, in 2023, liberal democracy in Latin America appeared to be regaining strength. But has it managed to sustain the trend? Tim Pires Alves assesses whether recent developments heralded a new global wave of democratisation, or whether we merely glimpsed the calm before an even harsher autocratic storm Read more
Giorgos Venizelos
'Populism' and 'power' have an uneasy relationship. Key texts reveal three assumptions about populism's 'fate' in power: first, it becomes mainstream; second, it turns authoritarian; third, it fails/succeeds to implement policies. Giorgos Venizelos argues we must look beyond the myths about populism's content or outcomes, and turn instead to populism's function of constructing collective identities through discursive / affective performativity Read more
Juan Cruz Díaz
Long-running negotiations between the European Union and Mercosur, aimed at forming an Association Agreement and liberalising trade, have faced numerous hurdles. As the December deadline for signature approaches, doubts loom over the pact’s future, write Juan Cruz Díaz and Carlos José Cruz Infante Read more
Carlos José Cruz Infante
The EU could learn valuable lessons from German Chancellor Scholz’s recent official visit to South America, writes Carlos Cruz Infante. Scholz showed a diplomacy formula that could leverage the Union’s geopolitical influence in the region Read more
Jonathan Powell
Observers were quick to call the events on 8 January in Brazil a coup attempt. But Jonathan Powell and Salah Ben Hammou caution against conflating coup advocacy with coup attempts. Authoritarianism scholars should also note that usage of the term 'coup' has historically varied Read more
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