Understanding Multi-directional Democratic Decay: Lessons from the Rise of Bolsonaro in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-226
Author(s):  
Tom Gerald Daly

AbstractOn 28 October 2018 the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the presidential elections in Brazil with 55% of the vote. This result has been viewed by many as yet another instance of the global rise of authoritarian populist leaders, grouping Bolsonaro alongside the likes of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, India’s Narendra Modi, or Donald Trump in the USA – indeed, Bolsonaro has been dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics.” The focus on Bolsonaro himself reflects the strong emphasis on executives in a rapidly expanding literature suggesting the emergence of a new form of would-be autocrat who is democratically elected but who hollows out democratic rule over time. However, this Article argues that, far beyond Bolsonaro, the Brazilian experience is an important case-study as it prompts reflection on three fundamental propositions. First, any analysis of liberal democracy as the perceived object of attack must be highly cognizant of the democratic “starting point” and history of a given state. Second, an excessive focus on executive-led assaults on democratic rule can impede fuller analysis of a broader suite of actors and factors relevant to the (declining) health of the democratic system. Third, authoritarianism is a more appropriate analytical lens than populism for identifying potential democratic threats, especially in the Brazilian context.

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Maria Caramez Carlotto ◽  
Sylvia Gemignani Garcia

Na literatura contemporânea sobre as transformações do ensino superior existe um forte consenso de que a expansão do saber gerencial foi um dos principais fatores que alterou sua dinâmica e organização interna. No caso do Brasil, são muitos os trabalhos que, seguindo essa percepção geral, apontam a estreita relação existente entre as políticas ditas “neoliberais” implementadas a partir da década de 1980, e a modernização gerencial difundida no país a partir de acordos de cooperação com os EUA durante os anos 1950 e 1960. No entanto, esses trabalhos, de modo geral, falham ao não conseguir mostrar, empiricamente, como se dá a relação entre esses dois momentos da história das políticas educacionais do país. O objetivo do presente trabalho é contribuir para a compreensão dessa relação a partir da análise de Yves Dezalay e Brynat Garth sobre o modo pelo qual a América Latina funcionou, nos anos 1950 e 1960, enquanto um “terreno de experimentação” de políticas que viriam a se difundir mundialmente nos anos 1980 e 1990. Para tanto, tomamos como objeto o Conselho de Reitores de Universidades Brasileiras (CRUB), no período que vai de 1966, ano da sua criação, até 1985, ano que marca o fim do regime militar, analisando tanto o conjunto de acordos internacionais então firmados pelo CRUB, quanto o resumo das suas principais atividades, e o perfil da sua diretoria executiva no período analisado.ABSTRACT In the contemporary literature on the transformations of higher education there is a strong consensus that the expansion of managerial knowledge was one of the main factors that altered its dynamics and internal organization. In the case of Brazil, there are many studies that, following this general perception, point to the close relationship between the so-called “neoliberal” policies implemented since the 1980s and the managerial modernization diffused in the country through cooperation agreements with the USA during the 1950s and 1960s. However, these works generally fail to show the relationship between these two moments in the history of educational policies in the country empirically. The objective of the present work is to contribute to the understanding of this relationship using, as a starting point, the analysis of Yves Dezalay and Brynat Garth on how Latin America functioned in the 1950s and 1960s as a “laboratory” of policies that would begin to spread worldwide in the 80s and 90s. To this end, we investigate the Council of Rectors of Brazilian Universities (CRUB) in the period from 1966, the year of its creation, until 1985, the year that marks the end of the military regime, analyzing both the set of international agreements signed by the CRUB during the period as well as the summary of its main activities and the profile of its executive board in this period of time.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (20) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Shaul M. Gabbay

For those who have studied the history of religious tensions in Egypt, the current rising tide of violence against Christians in the country should come as no surprise. Persecution of Christians in Egypt dates back for centuries. In recent years—particularly during the past decade—we have witnessed a greater interest in understanding the violence, not only in academia, but among the interested general population as well. This has led to an upsurge in academic writings and in media articles discussing the issue. After a thorough literature review, I have discovered that many of the pieces focus on the empirical, while often neglecting the normative. While empiricism is important for any research endeavor, this paper seeks to focus more on the narratives on the ground. As a sociologist for three decades, I have worked closely with the Egyptian Christian immigrant community in the U.S. and have regularly been called to testify in asylum courts across the U.S. regarding the issues of religious intolerance in Egypt. Over the years, I have conducted countless interviews with these individuals. As such, I have used their personal stories as a starting point for my academic inquiries. As a case study, I have selected three personal narratives to include in this analysis. All of the individuals' names have been changed in order to safeguard their identity. For this paper, I have specifically chosen individuals from different backgrounds, genders, education levels, social standings, and geographical location. In doing so, I was able to piece together a larger narrative that demonstrates how the persecution of Christians in Egypt is not limited to one group or another—it is widespread throughout Egyptian society. In the end, I was able to discover that each of the individuals suffered in different ways. However, they all suffered given one basic commonality—being Christian in Egypt.


2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 515-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold Behr

This article explores the metaphor of the scapegoat by offering a case study taken from the history of France at the turn of the 20th-century. The case is presented of a French army officer, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, whose wrongful conviction for treason created an international sensation and tore French society apart. The author outlines the general features of the scapegoating dynamic and applies them to the Dreyfus case. He sets out the flow of events from Dreyfus’s first trial through to the official declaration of his innocence a century after his conviction, illustrating the tenacity of the scapegoating dynamic when an entire nation is caught up in the process. The view is put forward that it was the dramatic intervention by the novelist Emile Zola in the Dreyfus case which arrested the scapegoating process. The author asks what the implications of this might be for group analysis. At the centre of the Dreyfus case was the fact of his Jewishness. The author depicts anti-Semitism as a deeply rooted set of assumptions based on myths about the Jews. He touches on the origins of these myths in early monotheistic theology and in the political ideology of the Far Left and the Far Right. An explanation is offered for the persistence of these myths in our culture, which may extend to our understanding of myths surrounding other peoples and societies. The author concludes with some reflections on the recurring nature of the scapegoat phenomenon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-67
Author(s):  
Markéta Křížová

Abstract The present article represents a partial outcome of a larger project that focuses on the history of the beginnings of anthropology as an organized science at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, in the broader socio-political context of Central Europe. Attention is focused especially on the nationalist and social competitions that had an important impact upon intellectual developments, but in turn were influenced by the activities of scholars and their public activities. The case study of Vojtěch (Alberto) Frič, traveler and amateur anthropologist, who in the first two decades of the twentieth century presented to European scientific circles and the general public in the Czech Lands his magnanimous vision of the comparative study of religions, serves as a starting point for considerations concerning the general debates on the purpose, methods, and ethical dimensions of ethnology as these were resonating in Central European academia of the period under study.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Azham Md. Mi ◽  
Lee Teck Heang ◽  
Brian West

<p class="Style2">The accounting history literature identifies a tendency for accounting in developing countries to be dominated by the style of accounting institutions and practices of western developed nations - particularly the USA and UK.This "importation" hypothesis is investigated and refined through a case study examination of the history of accounting in Malaysia during the formative years of 1957 to 1969. This era commences with the Malay States gaining independence from Britain and closes with the race riots which marked a turning point in the nation's history. The establishment of the Malaysian Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) in 1958 and the passing of the Companies Act of 1965 and the Accountants Act of 1967 are identified as key events which perpetuated British colonial influence within the new nation. These circumstances add credence to the "importation" hypothesis and support a depiction of accounting and its institutional apparatus as regularising forces with a capacity to transcend political and social change within a nation state.</p><p class="Style2">Keywords: accounting profession, professionalisation, Malaysia, colonialism</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shairatul Akma Roslan ◽  
Norzailawati Mohd Noor ◽  
Alias Abdullah ◽  
Zuraini Md Ali

The heritage of Lembah Bujang, Kedah is important as a starting point to understand the origins and history of civilization in Malaysia. This research is to analyze the spectral reflectance of shrines properties in an identified area by using remote sensing techniques in conserving this cultural heritage site. The remote sensing device (Spectroradiometer) was used to measure the spectral reflectance of the source of shrines in the study area. This tool was applied for reflectance’s test over properties such as ancient brick, granite, literates and iron in a different two study areas consist of Lembah Bujang and Kompleks Sungai Batu. Remote sensing test properties demonstrate that discrimination of properties types of each civilization is possible through reflection measurement, but that discrimination is complicated by surface conditions, such as weathering and lichen growth. Comparison between clays, granite and iron show that clays to be more reflective than granite and iron. This result will help more in our further study on detecting these properties direct through remote sensing imagery and will be helpful in developing new indexes and selection of threshold value on shrines material in the case study of Lembah Bujang.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-137
Author(s):  
Kibigo Mary Lukamika

The study explores how poetry as a dual genre draws its themes from the origin, history and setting or environs of the author in the society. Basically, literature like any other art has its own way of expressing its aesthetic value. This is done through the channel of language. On the other hand, literature has many genres. Despite that, poetry is considered to be the most ancient genre in many communities universally. Poetry, therefore, is a genre that has a dual nature, which implies that it is a genre of both oral and written literature. Kiswahili poetry encompasses itself fully with the society in question, its ideologies, philosophies, traditions, culture, and the general life of the Swahili people without taking into consideration the language in which it was constructed. Therefore, it is not possible to disassociate the Kiswahili poetry from their culture as it is fully drawn from their way of life. Since a people’s culture is enclosed in their language, this study selected two Kiswahili Poetry books through purposive sampling to show how poetry draws its themes from the author’s origin, history, setting, and culture. The selected books were: Sikate Tamaa (Said A. Mohamed) and Dhifa (Euphrase Kezilahabi) The study employed the Hermeneutics theory as interpreted by (Newmark and Michael Forster, 2007) . This theory was very vital to this study as it puts into consideration the words used, the history and culture of the author, context, and specific analysis of the text to come up with the objective of the general text. The study also used textual analysis as well as an observation checklist to analyse data. The study discovered that poetry is rich and has a lot to be desired as far as teaching and depicting the author’s origin, history, and setting in the society is concerned hence drawing the themes from that. This study aimed at highlighting the need for more in-depth research as this can reduce the negative notion that poetry is a hard and complicated genre to some learners and scholars. There is also a need for the poetry learners to identify the history of the author in order to provide a starting point for the analysis in question. Therefore, the study proposes that poems be taught at all levels of learning and their various elements in order to enlighten the Kiswahili and English students, scholars, and researchers.


2019 ◽  
pp. 53-69
Author(s):  
Oana Birlea

Having as a starting point one of the stereotypes of Japanese women considered a purveyor of kawaii this paper aims to explore a counterexample to Sanrio’s Hello Kitty mania offered by Shiseidō cosmetics through its overseas advertisements created during a long history on the European market. Even though the image of Japan is based mainly on the concept of kawaii Shiseidō tried at first on the local market to make a turn from that fragile, helpless and naïve perception of women to a more sophisticated one. Successful advertisements are made to answer a specific target audience’s needs, thus in order to go global there was a need to adapt typical Asian beauty standards to European ones. Shiseidō’s mission is to keep up with the times without forgetting the roots, the source of power, thus it has constantly worked in developing new strategies in order to thrive on the Western beauty market without setting aside Japanese tradition. Shiseidō corporate through its smaller brands like Majolica Majorca, Pure & Mild, Haku (meaning “white”) etc. still promote whitest white skin, a beauty ideal which prevails since the Heian period (794-1185). Considering that Shiseidō has a history of more than 50 years on the European market we propose an analysis on three beauty print advertisements elaborated during 1980-2000 in order to observe the constructed image of Japan through the imaginary of the French artist, Serge Lutens, responsible for the visual identity of the brand in Europe since 1980. The question is if it is a matter of “selling” the exotic to an unfamiliar receiver or a naive reflection of Japaneseness from a European’s perspective? Through this case study on beauty print advertisements created for the European market after 1990 we want to mirror the image of Japan in Europe as depicted through the specter of the biggest Japanese beauty conglomerate in the world, Shiseidō.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafiq Islam

No USA president in history has received as much opposition as Donald Trump has from all three components of the Establishment, namely the financial establishment, the political establishment and the corporate media establishment. The election of Donald Trump to the office of presidency is marked with dozens of historical first events that are anything but lackluster, yet a bleak picture of Fascism has been painted to describe Trump. This is an extraordinary piece of disinformation, as no modern president has been more consistent in plainly saying what he will do regarding US military and geopolitical goals, both outside and in office. This, even though his stated position is clearly opposite to the wishes of the dominant cabal, supported by both parties, and to US foreign policy since WWII. USA history is not very long, but Trump presidency and his inaugural speech marked a historic starting point for this 'democracy'. Every sentence of Donald J. Trump's inaugural speech was a departure from diplomacy. Knowing what diplomacy actually means, it's a great step toward transparency. It is the best thing that happened in US political history. It is no surprise the Media established completely flipped, the political establishment gasped, and the financial establishment started to conspire a different strategy (George Soros declaring he wants Trump presidency to fail). In the mean time, the typically apolitical science and technology establishment declared Trump completely unfit for the office that he has just been elected to. Trump’s inaugural speech that contained phrases like, "It's time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget, that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots", was in sharp contrast to how Abraham Lincoln viewed America, when he said, "I, as much as any other man, stand in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race… I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races." Trump’s embrace of humanity and righteousness was reminiscent of Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon at the pilgrimage, where he said over 1400 years, "An Arab is no better than a non-Arab, and a non-Arab is no better than an Arab; a red man is no better than a black man and a black man is no better than a red man – except if it is in terms of piety." Yet, Trump took oath of office swearing on the bible used by Abraham Lincoln. In this two-part paper, the key research question answered is what Trump presidency stands for. In answering this question, the first part deconstructs some of the dominant theories of Fascism. Then, a delinearized history is constructed in order to understand how democracy, as applied in USA, has an inevitable outcome of achieving the same goals as a Fascist regime. The concept of religious extremism, including “Islamic terrorism” or “radical Islam” is also discussed with relevance to ‘war on terror’. The history of US presidency then shows that the office of presidency is used as a tool to advance a Fascist agenda, albeit being packaged as USA exceptionalism. The ground is set for part 2 that analyses the rise of Trump and the demise of DNC integrity, followed by deconstruction of various allegations against Trump.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-277
Author(s):  
Richard Clarence Bush

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how the USA seeks to promote its interests in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait in the context of Taiwan’s unique political status and its democratic system. Design/methodology/approach – A narrative analysis examines the recent history of Taiwan’s democratic development and USA responses to it. Findings – The USA has responded in various ways to the dilemma of respecting the outcomes of elections in friendly democracies while protecting its own interests in peace and security. This was easy during the Ma Ying-jeou administration (2008-2016) but it is likely to become more difficult following Taiwan’s presidential election in January 2016. Originality/value – This study draws on personal experience and an in-depth understanding of Taiwan politics and US diplomacy.


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