—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [Editors’ Note: This is one of our biweekly ICONnect columns. For more information on our four columnists for 2021, please see here.] Polarization is what several political scientists and constitutional scholars have pointed out as possibly the most troubling sign of
Symposium on The Legacies of Trumpism and Constitutional Democracy in the United States | Part IV | The Life of the Party
[Editor’s Note: In light of this week’s inauguration, I-CONnect is pleased to feature a five-part symposium on the state of US constitutionalism after Trump. The introduction to the symposium can be found here.] —Kim Lane Scheppele, Princeton University American democracy looked strong in the 2020 election. Record numbers of Americans turned out to vote. Election
The Other Side of the Party Fragmentation Paradox in Brazil: A Re-Election Booster?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development In my previous post “The Party Fragmentation Paradox in Brazil: A Shield Against Authoritarianism”, I argued that, paradoxically, party fragmentation may “serve as a shield against radical and authoritarian intents by the executive power.” The continuous battle Brazil’s President Bolsonaro had
The Party Fragmentation Paradox in Brazil: A Shield Against Authoritarianism?
—Juliano Zaiden Benvindo, University of Brasília and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development Brazil features possibly the most fragmented party system in the world. At this current legislative term, there are 25 parties with representation in the Lower House, and 16 in the Senate. The level of fragmentation is so steep that the biggest
Presidentialism and the Crisis of Governance in Brazil
[Editor’s Note: This is the fourth entry in our symposium on the “30th Anniversary of the Brazilian Constitution.” The introduction to the symposium is available here.] —Luiz Guilherme Arcaro Conci, Pontifical University of Sao Paulo Brazil was the only American country that, once independent (1822), established a national monarchy that reigned for almost eighty years[1]. From the late
