Democratic Erosion

This workshop, organised by the GIGA, brings together renowned European and Latin American scholars from the Red Euro-Latinoamericana de Gobernabilidad para el Desarrollo to discuss and present their most recent research on the state of democratic institutions in Latin America. Los debates serán en inglés, español y portugués.

The Red Euro-Latinoamericana de Gobernabilidad para el Desarrollo is a network of renowned European and Latin American research institutions which aims to generate a space for the exchange of knowledge on the subjects of governability, public policy, institutional reform and development.

You want to learn more about Chinese foreign policy and the role experts can exert on it? In This GIGA China talk, we will discuss with Sabine Mokry how the role of Chinese experts has changed under Xi Jinping and how, despite centralization of political power, scholars and think tankers can still exert influence on foreign policy.

A panel of experts discussed the risks of democratic backsliding in Indonesia under President Prabowo Subianto, the sources of resistance and the implications for Germany’s strategic choices. Read on to learn more about the highlights of the discussion.

Rodrigo Patto Sá Motta's lecture will focus on the recent shift to the right in the Southern Cone countries, which brought the far-right to power in that region starting with Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil (2018) and Javier Milei in Argentina (2023), while Chile's political fate is currently in dispute during the 2025 November/December elections.

This GIGA Talk explores how people and politicians across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East view today’s major conflicts — perspectives often missing from European media. Our panelists discuss how history, regional dynamics, and strategic priorities shape these diverse interpretations of events.

Germany is facing important foreign policy decisions: How can the new government best interact with the Global South between democratic crisis, power competition, and ongoing economic interests? In this GIGA Forum, experts analyse challenges, opportunities, and possible strategies here. 

The 2024 BRICS Summit stands out for two reasons: first, its setting in Russia provides a stage for authoritarian and democratic leaders alike to push their agendas and, second, the organisation’s recent expansion raises salient questions about the future of the global order and the functioning of BRICS itself.

The political, economic, and societal obstruction of climate policies is a worldwide phenomenon. Our panel will address the state of climate obstruction in Brazil, considering the transition from the Bolsonaro to the Lula government, how actors from the international to the local level have responded to it, and its global ramifications.

Journalism seeks to be impartial in the sense of “both sides being heard.” When democratic media report on authoritarian regimes, this allows autocracies to spread propaganda and influence what people think of them. Media reporting on non-democratic states must avoid reproducing regime narratives and disinformation. Video recording now online.

In the world’s largest democratic exercise, Indians elect a new parliament. We discuss the run-up to the elections, its likely outcomes, and potential repercussions for Indo-German relations.

This GIGA Forum discusses the recent wave of military coups in Africa in light of their implications for democracy in the region and for European foreign policy.

Under the banner of countering disinformation, autocratising governments in Asia have recently stifled civil society by either exploiting existing information laws or passing new ones. This contributes to the erosion of civil rights, restriction of information flows, and the deepening of autocratic rule.

Focused on Latin American and MENA radical leftist movements post World War II, this conference encourages a cross-regional, interdisciplinary perspective. It explores shared worldviews, unique trajectories, and their interplay with their respective contexts, while addressing the methodological challenges in studying these movements.

This workshop investigates the often paradoxical relationship between the processes of security production in the local security arena and inhabitants’ perceptions of their own security.

Verónica Zubillaga, PhD, will give a lecture based on the analysis of ethnographic data. She will discuss the concepts of collaborative governance and criminal governance to understand how social control functions locally in an authoritarian context where a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis has restricted the resources and scope of government.

Prof. Dr. Gerard McCarthy will provide an overview of his recently released book Outsourcing the Polity: Non-State Welfare, Inequality, and Resistance in Myanmar (Cornell University Press 2023).

Across the world, women’s representation in parliaments varies widely. While in Rwanda and New Zealand women make up more than half of their respective country’s legislatures, in Nigeria and Japan, women comprise a small minority in parliament. In this GIGA Forum, experts will discuss these global differences. Video now online.

Special issue workshop bringing together scholars, practitioners and policymakers working at the cutting-edge of legal identity issues in a range of different contexts to problematise, ponder and begin the process of re-envisaging what a world beyond the binaries of state and non-state could look like.

Brazil, one of Global South’s largest democracies, is heading for the decisive second round of its presidential elections on Sunday 30 October. However, incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro has repeatedly threatened not to accept the vote if he should lose. At this GIGA Talk, we will discuss the consequences for Brazil and its relationship with Europe. Video now online!

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 workshop, organised by the GIGA, brings together renowned European and Latin American scholars from the Red Euro-Latinoamericana de Gobernabilidad para el Desarrollo to discuss and present their most recent research on the state of democratic institutions in Latin America. Los debates serán en inglés, español y portugués.

The Red Euro-Latinoamericana de Gobernabilidad para el Desarrollo is a network of renowned European and Latin American research institutions which aims to generate a space for the exchange of knowledge on the subjects of governability, public policy, institutional reform and development.