Objective/Context: Security concerns in South America have been a central agenda item in regional political dialogue, thereby shaping state behavior as governments, faced with structural and conjunctural factors, establish alliances or instruments of cooperation in the field of defense. Given this agenda’s relevance, focusing on the role of domestic institutional agents reaffirms the importance of the political-bureaucratic model within foreign policy analysis (FPA), which conceives foreign policy as a public policy and, therefore, subject to the interpenetration of actors institutionally and hierarchically positioned. On this basis, this study aims to analyze, through the political-bureaucratic model of decision-making, the process of formulating the proposal for the South American Defense Council (CDS; Consejo de Defensa Suramericano) during the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration between 2006 and 2008. The central hypothesis is that, although the initiative depended decisively on the personal engagement of hierarchically positioned individuals, it was rendered viable by bureaucratic structures and institutional traditions that transcend the political-ideological conjuncture of the so-called “pink wave.” Methodology: Using a descriptive-analytical approach, this research is a theoretically oriented single-case study guided by documentary analysis of primary sources from public archival collections. The model is operationalized by identifying the actors involved, their prior preferences and resources, and reconstructing the bargaining processes through which resistances were overcome. Conclusion: The results of the analysis point to an institutional dynamic in which the individual aspirations of the actors involved in the formulation of the CDS were indispensable, revealing an innovation in the Brazilian behavioral pattern regarding regional defense coordination; nevertheless, such aspirations prevailed only because they were channeled through pre-existing bureaucratic structures and negotiation routines. Originality: Beyond its theoretical application, this study’s originality lies in its contribution to understanding the factors and particularities of the Brazilian case in creating a significant body for dialogue, cooperation, and coordination in defense, encompassing key regional security issues. It also proposes an alternative interpretation to explanations that attribute the emergence of the CDS primarily to the regional ideological situation
Objective/context: This article examines the transformation of South American regional governance in the 2010s, distinguishing between autonomist and subordinate governance. Methodology: The paper proposes a causal analytical model linking the political-ideological orientation of governments (independent variable) to the type of regional governance (dependent variable), with foreign policy orientation toward regionalism as an intervening variable. The model is operationalized through three dimensions: ideology, institutions, and geopolitical identity. Methodologically, the study uses Anckar’s (2008) Most Different Systems Design (MDSD) to comparatively analyze the cases of Brazil under Jair Bolsonaro’s government and Colombia under Iván Duque’s government. Conclusions: The article argues that the rise of conservative and neo-patriotic right-wing governments spurred a shift toward subordinate governance, characterized by foreign policies that prioritized alignment with the United States and rejected post-hegemonic regionalism. Originality: By introducing subordinate governance as an analytical category, the article contributes to debates on regional governance, South American regionalism, and foreign policy analysis and offers an analytical framework for explaining the region’s recent geopolitical transformations.
Objetivo/contexto: Este artigo analisa como se configuram o soft power e o soft disempowerment japonês no Brasil, em um cenário marcado pela crescente presença da China e da Coreia do Sul na América Latina. A pesquisa considera tanto agentes estatais (como Fundação Japão, Câmara de Comércio e Indústria Japonesa do Brasil, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science e Study in Japan) quanto agentes não estatais (associações culturais nipobrasileiras e redes de ex-bolsistas do governo japonês), reconhecendo que a influência japonesa no Brasil é produzida por uma rede híbrida de atores. O artigo parte da premissa de que essa atuação é estruturada por dinâmicas culturais específicas que permitem ao país manter relevância em um ambiente competitivo marcado pela presença chinesa e sul-coreana. Metodologia: A investigação adota abordagem qualitativa, fundamentada no interpretativismo. Foram realizadas revisão sistemática da literatura, análise documental e 18 entrevistas semiestruturadas com agentes estatais e não estatais envolvidos na promoção da atuação japonesa no Brasil. Os dados foram examinados por meio de análise temática com apoio do software Atlas.ti 25. Conclusões: Os resultados indicam que o soft power japonês no Brasil se estrutura em torno de três noções centrais: sessatakuma (rivalidade amigável), menimieanai (invisibilidade) e yokonarabi (avanço paralelo). Essas dinâmicas permitem ao Japão manter influência mesmo diante da expansão chinesa e sulcoreana, embora riscos de soft disempowerment persistam. Originalidade: O estudo contribui ao revelar como o soft power japonês opera em um país emergente com forte presença nikkei, destacando mecanismos de coexistência competitiva raramente explorados na literatura. Este artigo oferece um arcabouço interpretativo culturalmente situado, baseado em três categorias derivadas da cultura japonesa, que permite compreender mecanismos de coexistência competitiva e riscos de soft disempowerment no contexto brasileiro e aplicável a outras disputas de influência asiática na América Latina.
Objetivo/contexto: el 30 de diciembre del 2022, el presidente chileno Gabriel Boric concedió 13 indultos. Esta decisión generó rechazo tanto en la oposición como en la opinión pública, lo que ocasionó diversos efectos disruptivos para el Gobierno, la rotación ministerial fue el más importante. ¿Por qué generaron los indultos tales efectos? Este artículo señala que, bajo determinadas condiciones, la concesión de indultos incrementa el costo político para el gobierno. El objetivo es explicar el mecanismo causal que originó dicho incremento. Metodología: Este artículo utiliza el método de process tracing para identificar el mecanismo causal que conecta la concesión de indultos (input) con la rotación ministerial (output). A través del análisis secuencial de los acontecimientos y de la evidencia empírica disponible, se rastrean las fuerzas causales que explican cómo la decisión presidencial incrementó el costo político para el gobierno y desembocó en cambios ministeriales. Conclusiones: los resultados demuestran que el costo político se incrementó en dos momentos del mecanismo. Un primer momento determinado por la oposición legislativa y la ruptura de las negociaciones en torno a la Mesa de Seguridad. Y un segundo momento relacionado con el conflicto generado con el Poder Judicial. Originalidad: el indulto es un poder omitido en el estudio de la ciencia política latinoamericana. Por ende, el presente artículo es un aporte teórico que integra la literatura sobre pardon power con el concepto de costo político para explicar las consecuencias del indulto en el gobierno. A nivel metodológico, incorpora el process tracing como método para analizar los efectos políticos del indulto en las democracias de América Latina.
Objective/context: The article revisits the comparative analysis of the divergent development trajectories of the Global South in an international context marked by the growing centrality of this macro-region and the intensification of its internal interconnections. It examines how state configurations interact with a strategic triangle comprising the state, industrial-technological development, and regional productive integration. The study covers three historical periods—the long Sino-Asian predominance until the mid-nineteenth century, the rise of U.S. hegemony, and the systemic crisis of the 1970s—to explain how the persistence/disruption of this triangle shaped these trajectories. Methodology: It combines a historical-structural analysis with a multiscale comparative approach to assess (a) state-building trajectories and state capacities; (b) patterns of industrial-technological upgrading; and (c) modalities of regional productive integration. The empirical evidence draws on secondary literature and historical comparisons across the mentioned three periods: (1) early state formation and commercial integration in Sino-Asia vs. postcolonial fragmentation in Latin America; (2) state-led industrialization in Asia vs. Latin American “gruyère states”; and (3) contemporary divergences in directive capacity, industrialization, and regionalism. Conclusions: The comparative analysis indicates that the Sino-Asian region articulated strong states, advanced industrialization, and functional regional integration, while preserving margins of autonomy. Latin America, by contrast, experienced disarticulation, state weakening, reprimarization, and subordinated regionalisms. Originality: The article transcends isolated national comparisons and offers a relational, systemic interpretation of regional divergence, grounded in the articulation—or rupture—of the State-industrialization-regional integration triangle, providing insights for rethinking Latin America’s insertion into the twenty-first-century global system.
Objetivo/contexto: este artículo analiza las estrategias del movimiento de desocupados de Argentina ante el Estado, los Gobiernos y el sistema político, a treinta años de su surgimiento. Nacidas durante el ciclo de protestas de finales de la década de 1990, las organizaciones de desocupados en Argentina cobraron visibilidad, en primer lugar, por sus acciones contenciosas y por su externalidad respecto del sistema político. Sin embargo, a partir del ciclo progresista que experimentó el país, el movimiento de desocupados se institucionalizó, conquistando leyes y políticas públicas. En algunos casos, incluso llevó a sus dirigentes a cargos del Estado. Metodología: el artículo es producto de una investigación cualitativa y longitudinal, inscripta en la sociología política y llevada a cabo con las organizaciones del movimiento de desocupados durante veinte años. Las principales técnicas de recolección de datos fueron las entrevistas y el análisis documental. Conclusiones: las organizaciones estudiadas dieron un giro neocorporativo que implicó poner en segundo plano los anhelos de ruptura con el sistema político y la incorporación de una estrategia de negociación y cooperación con el Estado y los Gobiernos. Con ello, pasaron a consolidarse como representantes gremiales de los trabajadores desocupados e informales. Este giro habría sido posible, a su vez, por la apertura de las elites gobernantes de distintos signos políticos a negociar con este actor. Originalidad: este artículo ofrece hallazgos empíricos novedosos sobre las arenas en las que se despliegan los movimientos sociales y evidencia la interacción del movimiento de desocupados con el Estado y con los partidos políticos tradicionales. También muestra cómo se modificó la estrategia del movimiento piquetero, desde una primera etapa de beligerancia y anhelos de ruptura con el sistema político, hasta el giro neocorporativo que las afianzó como un actor representativo y consolidado de los desocupados ante el poder político.
Objective/Context: This article analyzes why the Petro administration's pension reform was approved through ordinary legislative procedures, whereas other social reforms failed or required extra-legislative pressure. We argue that the outcome cannot be explained solely by the government's ideology, democratization, or social pressure, nor by the legislative coalition-building tools identified in the literature on coalition presidentialism. Rather, it is explained by a specific configuration of political-institutional and sectoral factors. Methodology: The legislative process was reconstructed through process tracing, analyzing changes to the articles, public hearings, committee and plenary debates, media coverage, and technical documents. Counterfactual comparisons with government reforms were used to assess the plausibility of each causal condition. Conclusions: We identified a causal sequence of four necessary and jointly sufficient conditions explaining the success of the reform: (1) a prior technical-political consensus on the need to reform the pension system; (2) the structural weakness of the losers and opponents; (3) a pre-agreement that limited dissent and reduced vetoes, and (4) programmatic-clientelistic negotiations focused on Congress. Originality: The article distinguishes between the factors that explain reformist intentions and those that explain their actual approval in the legislative branch; it brings the literature on the expansion of social policy and executive-legislative relations into dialogue. Regarding the latter, it shows that its explanatory factors are, for the most part, invariant at the country-year level, with the relevant variation occurring at the sectoral level. It introduces technical-political consensus, pre-agreement, and the opposition's weakness as overlooked sectoral conditions. It also demonstrates the complementary role of programmatic and clientelistic negotiations in contexts of volatile parties and particularistic practices.
Objective/Context: In a two-level game, the government, using the state, positions its interests within an operational framework that can be either favorable or hostile, depending on the context. This text analyzes the modifiable dimensions of the foreign policy of the Guillermo Lasso administration in Ecuador (2021-2023), focusing on design and implementation, and examines disputes and tensions arising from state capture. Methodology: The study combines various qualitative techniques, such as text analysis using co-occurrence matrices and n-gram analysis, political and cabinet context analysis, and content analysis. Conclusions: The government's international agenda was shaped at the intersection of domestic constraints, elite disputes, and external alignments, favoring the articulation of interests between local business elites and external partners, leading to initiatives that did not necessarily serve the collective good. Originality: This research contributes to the understanding of the state's struggle, as a field that deepens the limits of private-particular interests against collective-governmental ones.
Objective/Context: The Truth Commission of Colombia, established under the 2016 Peace Agreement, innovated in its work with people who had to leave the country due to the armed conflict. By implementing this extraterritorial approach, the commission used a network of hundreds of volunteers in 24 countries who helped disseminate its mandate, interview more than 2,000 exiles, and promote recognition of the Colombian exile community. In this article, we analyze the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within this network. Methodology: We conducted this research through documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, and our experience as members of this network. We drew on the literature on networks and participation in peacebuilding processes to inform our discussions of transitional justice and exile. Conclusions: We found that the Truth Commission's work with the exile community reflected the tensions between results-oriented approaches, which prioritize efficiency, and process-oriented approaches, which prioritize inclusion. It avoided both extremes, enabling it to achieve significant results while allowing marginalized actors to exercise their agency, claim spaces, and gain visibility despite certain exclusionary dynamics. Originality: The study of the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion in the Truth Commission's innovative networking with exiles contributes to debates on transitional justice by illustrating the dilemmas these processes face in engaging victims abroad to achieve results while remaining inclusive.
Objective/Context: Chile is a country in which the Presidency of the Republic plays a central role in the political system. We examine the presidential role in contexts of crisis and stability, based on an analysis of presidential speeches delivered before Congress between 1921 and 2024. Methodology: From an interdisciplinary perspective that combines systemic functional linguistics and discursive institutionalism, we identify discursive patterns and develop a typology of discursive strategies in these contexts. Based on a corpus of 104 presidential speeches and using a mixed-methods approach that combines qualitative discourse analysis with corpus systematization, we apply a model developed specifically for this study, integrating linguistic and sociopolitical dimensions to examine the presidential role in contexts of stability and crisis. Conclusions: The analysis reveals three recurring strategies, associated with the type of presidency (continuist or reformist) and the use of discursive skills (inherited or vanguard). It concludes that resilient institutional stability functions as a predominant discursive strategy, prevailing over rupture, in the symbolic configuration of presidential power. Originality: The study offers an innovative perspective by analyzing, in the Chilean case over a century, how the ideas and discursive patterns present in presidential speeches not only reflect their role in contexts of crisis or stability but also contribute to reproducing or reinterpreting the institutional order. It is a contribution to both discourse studies and the literature on presidential regimes.
Objetivo/contexto: en un juego de doble nivel, el Gobierno, mediante el uso del Estado, posiciona sus intereses dentro de un marco operativo que puede tornarse favorable u hostil, en clara dependencia del contexto. El siguiente texto analiza las dimensiones modificables de la política exterior del Gobierno de Guillermo Lasso en Ecuador (2021-2023), en cuanto a diseño e implementación, con disputas y tensiones por la captura del Estado. Metodología: el estudio combina diversas técnicas cualitativas, como análisis de textos mediante matrices de coocurrencia y un n-grama, análisis del contexto político y de gabinete, y análisis de contenido. Conclusiones: la agenda internacional del Gobierno se definió en la intersección entre condicionamientos domésticos, disputas de élite y alineamientos externos, favoreciendo la articulación entre intereses de élites empresariales locales y socios externos para iniciativas que no necesariamente respondían al bien colectivo. Originalidad: esta investigación realiza un aporte en la comprensión de la pugna del Estado, como campo que profundiza los límites de los intereses privados-particulares con los colectivos-gubernamentales.
Objetivo/contexto: la Comisión de la Verdad de Colombia, establecida en virtud del Acuerdo de Paz de 2016, innovó en su trabajo con las personas que tuvieron que salir del país con motivo del conflicto armado. En la implementación de este enfoque extraterritorial, utilizó una estructura en red, con cientos de voluntarios en 24 países, quienes ayudaron a difundir el mandato de la comisión, a entrevistar a más de 2.000 personas exiliadas y a promover el reconocimiento del exilio colombiano. En este artículo analizamos las dinámicas de inclusión y exclusión en esta red. Metodología: lo hacemos a partir de un análisis documental, de entrevistas semiestructuradas, así como de nuestra experiencia como integrantes de esta red. Usamos la literatura sobre redes y participación en procesos de construcción de paz para nutrir las discusiones sobre justicia transicional y exilio. Conclusiones: encontramos que el trabajo de la Comisión de la Verdad con el exilio reflejó las tensiones entre los enfoques centrados en resultados, que privilegian la eficiencia, y los centrados en el proceso, que priorizan la inclusión. No tendió a ninguno de los dos extremos, lo que posibilitó alcanzar resultados importantes y permitió a actores subalternos ejercer su agencia, reclamar espacios y ganar visibilidad, a pesar de ciertas dinámicas excluyentes. Originalidad: el estudio de las dinámicas de inclusión y exclusión en el innovador trabajo en red de la Comisión de la Verdad con el exilio aporta a los debates sobre justicia transicional al ilustrar los dilemas a los que se enfrentan estos procesos con víctimas en el exterior para lograr resultados y, al mismo tiempo, ser incluyentes.
Objetivo/contexto: Chile es un país en el que la Presidencia de la República desempeña un papel clave en el sistema político. Examinamos el rol presidencial en contextos de crisis o de estabilidad, a partir del análisis de sus discursos ante el Congreso entre 1921 y 2024. Metodología: Desde una perspectiva interdisciplinaria que articula la lingüística sistémico-funcional y el institucionalismo discursivo, se identifican patrones discursivos y una tipología de estrategias discursivas en dichos contextos. A partir del estudio de 104 discursos presidenciales, mediante una estrategia metodológica mixta que combina el análisis cualitativo del discurso y la sistematización del corpus, se aplica un modelo de elaboración propia que integra dimensiones lingüísticas y sociopolíticas para examinar el rol presidencial frente a contextos de estabilidad y crisis. Conclusiones: El análisis revela tres estrategias recurrentes, asociadas al tipo de presidencia (continuista o reformista) y al uso de habilidades discursivas (heredadas o de vanguardia). Se concluye que la estabilidad institucional resiliente opera como una estrategia discursiva predominante, por encima de la ruptura, en la configuración simbólica del poder presidencial. Originalidad: el estudio aporta una perspectiva innovadora al analizar, en el caso de Chile, longitudinalmente a lo largo de un siglo, cómo las ideas y patrones discursivos presentes en los discursos presidenciales, además de reflejar su rol en contextos de crisis o de estabilidad, contribuyen a reproducir o reinterpretar el orden institucional. Esto es un aporte tanto para los estudios del discurso como para los de los regímenes presidenciales.
Objective/context: This article reevaluates Colombia’s place in Latin American international history by challenging what we call the López–Drekonja thesis, which portrays the country as passive or as an “Andean Tibet.” It argues that, between 1950 and 1962, Colombia adopted a middlepowermanship role conception that helps explain its selective activism in international peace and security. Methodology: Using a structured, focused comparison (George and Bennett, 2004), the study integrates role theory (Holsti, 1970; Harnisch, 2011) with middle power scholarship. Two cases—Colombia’s participation in the Korean War and its diplomatic leadership in Cuba’s expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS)—trace how three interrelated motivations (status-seeking, self-interest, and moralism/idealism) shaped role conception and performance. Conclusions: Both cases reveal agency despite structural constraints. In Korea, self-interest predominated, followed by moralism/idealism and status-seeking; in the “Cuban question,” the order was self-interest > status-seeking > moralism/idealism. Colombia pursued niche diplomacy and legalist multilateralism to punch above its weight, complicating materialist and dependency readings that assume automatic subordination to the United States. Originality: The article proposes a middlepowermanship role conception for a non-canonical Latin American case, linking identity and behavior without requiring explicit self-labeling as a “middle power.” It offers a theoretical–historical reinterpretation of a neglected period in Colombian foreign policy and extends role theory’s analytical scope to peripheral contexts.
Objetivo/contexto: este artículo analiza por qué la reforma pensional del Gobierno de Petro logró su aprobación mediante el trámite legislativo ordinario, mientras otras reformas sociales fracasaron o requirieron presiones extralegislativas. Sostenemos que el resultado no se explica solo por la ideología del Gobierno, la democratización o la presión social, ni por las herramientas de construcción de coaliciones legislativas identificadas en la literatura sobre presidencialismo coalicional, sino por una configuración específica de factores político-institucionales y sectoriales. Metodología: se reconstruyó el trámite legislativo mediante rastreo de procesos (process tracing), analizando cambios en el articulado, audiencias públicas, debates en comisiones y plenarias, cobertura mediática y documentos técnicos. Se emplearon comparaciones contrafácticas con reformas del Gobierno para evaluar la plausibilidad de cada condición causal. Conclusiones: identificamos una secuencia causal de cuatro condiciones necesarias y conjuntamente suficientes para explicar el éxito de la reforma: (1) un consenso técnico-político previo sobre la necesidad de reformar el sistema pensional; (2) la debilidad estructural de los perdedores y opositores; (3) una preconcertación que acotó los disensos y redujo vetos, y (4) negociaciones programático-clientelares focalizadas en el Congreso. Originalidad: el artículo diferencia entre los factores que explican la intención reformista y aquellos que explican la aprobación efectiva en el Legislativo; pone a conversar las literaturas sobre la expansión de la política social y las relaciones Ejecutivo-Legislativo. Frente a esta última, muestra que sus factores explicativos son, en su mayoría, invariantes en el plano país-año y que la variación relevante se encuentra en el nivel sectorial. Introduce el consenso técnico-político, la preconcertación y la debilidad de los opositores como condiciones sectoriales ignoradas. Asimismo, muestra el papel complementario de negociaciones programáticas y clientelares en contextos de partidos volátiles y prácticas particularistas.
Objective/context: This article assesses whether Chile's social uprising constitutes a populist moment from a Laclauian perspective, identifying the discursive mechanisms that make it recognizable in collective action. Methodology: Thirty-one in-depth interviews (May-September 2020) were conducted with organizations that played leading roles in the revolt, spanning feminism, labor, environmentalism, the student movement, and human rights, among other areas. Conclusions: The uprising operated as an imperfect populist phenomenon by drawing a people-elite frontier and an equivalential chain synthesized by the empty signifier "dignity," which catalyzed a post-neoliberal horizon condensed in the demand for a new Constitution, albeit without the emergence of a unifying charismatic leader. Originality: It offers qualitative empirical evidence grounded in organizational experiences to read the Chilean revolt through populist theory.
Objective/context: One goal of recent political reforms has been to expand the participation of new political forces; in the 2015 and 2019 local elections, third forces competed in every Colombian municipality, yet few achieved relevance vis-a-vis traditional parties; this study examines how and under what conditions third forces reshape the mayoral electoral market, distinguishing between organizations with national and local reach. Methodology: The study compiles municipal-level electoral and social data and estimates logistic regression models with cluster-robust standard errors at the municipality level; relevance operationalized via the effective number of parties, and the national strength of third forces is constructed from their presence in representative bodies and elected offices at different levels. Conclusions: Third forces are more likely to be relevant when they are national political forces and, when they are, their relevance lowers the probability of victory for traditional parties; substantively, a one-standard deviation increase in the average national strength of third forces raises by 95.7% the likelihood that at least one is locally relevant. Originality: The study engages with debates on setbacks in political openness and decentralization, contributes an explicit measure of relevance based on electoral fragmentation, and shows that, despite the predominance of traditional parties and coalitions, third forces require organizational capacity and national anchoring to turn presence into subnational successes.
Objective/Context: This article examines how judicial decisions have transformed the architecture of the Colombian party system by redefining the criteria for the creation, recognition, and permanence of political organizations. Methodology: Based on a qualitative and documentary analysis of landmark rulings by the Constitutional Court, the Council of State, and the National Electoral Council, the study proposes a typology of three mechanisms of judicial intervention: (1) political reparation in response to historical violence, (2) the expansion of the right to opposition derived from the Statute of the Opposition, and (3) the regulation of coalitions, adhesions, and splits in the face of regulatory gaps. Conclusions: The study does not seek to measure quantitative effects, but rather to identify interpretive patterns that demonstrate how the judiciary has become a structuring actor of political pluralism. Originality: The analysis demonstrates that judicialization has broadened the avenues for inclusion and representation, albeit at the cost of introducing normative uncertainty and institutional tensions in the regulation of democratic competition.
Objective/context: To develop an analytical framework oriented towards the study of subjectivation processes in scenarios that, even in the absence of conflict, constitute decisive spaces for the very gestation of conflictive configurations. The study relies on a dialogue between distinct theoretical traditions-Western and Sinocentric-addressing the nature and causes of international conflict. Based on this discussion, the notion of relational conflict is introduced as a differentiated yet complementary category regarding conventional conceptions of conflict. Methodology: Drawing on a heterogeneous conceptual basis, a hermeneutic methodological approach is applied, and vulnerability zones are proposed as liminal zones situated between risk and conflict-conventional and relational- characterized by a subjective construction of uncertainty. Conclusions: vulnerability zones constitute a solid theoretical framework for categorizing and analyzing diverse behavioral patterns and filtering mechanisms regarding a single phenomenon, allowing for the expansion of the notion of vulnerability into multiple dimensions. Originality: It examines the role of Chinese relationality in its approach to conflict and highlights the existence of spaces of plural signification that, while manifest in empirical reality, lack adequate theoretical conceptualization within the discipline.
Objective/context: The article develops the concept of socio-partisan activism to explain how activists simultaneously engage with both political parties and social movements through Brazil’s collective mandates, examining the conditions under which this dual engagement can democratize political representation. Methodology: A qualitative multiple-case study analyzes 33 collective mandates—29 elected in Brazil’s 2020 municipal elections, two municipal precursors from 2016, and two state-level mandates from 2018—drawing on 64 semi-structured interviews with 74 individuals, extensive documentary research, and inductive-deductive content analysis using Atlas.ti. Conclusions: Multiple affiliations between movements and parties are widespread across collective mandates, enabling the transfer of participatory repertoires and activist knowledge into legislative practice through horizontal office structures, expanded political councils, and sustained engagement in committees, hearings, territories, and protests both inside and outside institutions. Conflicts stem from party organizational constraints and legal ambiguity surrounding collective candidacies, legislatures’ vertical and weakly deliberative routines, factional disputes within the Workers’ Party (PT) and the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL), and uneven internal alignment—pressures that can fragment collectives even as they broaden inclusion of historically excluded groups. Three conditions shape both success and conflict: party and legislative organization, shared affinities and programmatic alignment among co-councilors, and micro-relations within parties. Together, these factors condition how socio-partisan activism can recalibrate representation. Originality: By shifting the analytical focus from organizations to activists, the article introduces a generalizable framework—socio-partisan activism—that expands party–movement research beyond episodic alliances to everyday dual engagement, mapping how collective mandates adapt movement repertoires to representative institutions while reinforcing civil-society networks and proposing a comprehensive view of the universe of elected collective mandates at the time of study.
