Brazil’s Run-off Elections: Democracy at Risk

The GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies conducts research on political and economic developments in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Core topics include the quality of political institutions and participation, challenges posed by conflicts and crime, and regional integration.

The Accountability and Participation Research Programme undertakes comparative analyses of political processes that may foster or undermine the quality of democratic institutions and spread authoritarian politics and practices in the Global South and across the globe.

It is not only non-democratic regimes that resort to authoritarian practices. They can increasingly be found in use also in formally democratic states, as the examples of shrinking civic space, populism, and democratic backsliding show.

Many people fear rigged elections, when, on 2 October 2022, more than 150 million Brazilians are called to vote. President Jair Bolsonaro, seeking re-election, has repeatedly impugned the voting system. At this GIGA Forum, experts explore flawed, corrupt, or failed elections in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Video of event now online!

This GIGA Forum investigates the causes of the populist-authoritarian shift in Brazil and takes stock of government policy since Jair Bolsonaro took office.

Police brutality, by which Afro-Brazilians are particularly affected, is increasing alarmingly in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro and other extreme-right politicians are further encouraging police violence with tough-on-crime discourses and policies. The authors of this GIGA Focus analyse the situation.

The former army captain and right-wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro is leading the polls in advance of the Brazilian presidential elections on 7 October. He has neither government experience nor an appreciable party alliance, but he has successfully instrumentalised voters’ frustration regarding the…

The new issue of the Journal of Politics in Latin America analyses topics such as abortion rights in Argentina, private pension fund reforms in Peru, the provision of identification numbers to election candidates in Brazil, and more.

Jair Bolsonaro droht als Präsident Brasiliens die Abwahl. Doch eine Niederlage will er nicht akzeptieren. Stehen dem Land unruhige Zeiten bevor?

The GIGA Institute for Latin American Studies conducts research on political and economic developments in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Core topics include the quality of political institutions and participation, challenges posed by conflicts and crime, and regional integration.

The Accountability and Participation Research Programme undertakes comparative analyses of political processes that may foster or undermine the quality of democratic institutions and spread authoritarian politics and practices in the Global South and across the globe.

It is not only non-democratic regimes that resort to authoritarian practices. They can increasingly be found in use also in formally democratic states, as the examples of shrinking civic space, populism, and democratic backsliding show.