Abstract The People’s Republic of China (PRC) military footprint is expanding globally, and one of the most notable examples of its contribution to international security is its involvement in United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operations. By examining Chinese deployments to these missions, this article seeks to contribute to understanding the political economy of China’s expanding global military presence. Is China a responsible power or a self-interested, resource-seeking actor in the peacekeeping regime? Relying on an original dataset, the article presents an empirical strategy based on statistical analysis to evaluate both hypotheses, covering more than 30 years of Chinese involvement in UN peacekeeping operations. Economic indicators such as GDP and trade flows are used as independent variables. Although bivariate analysis shows that China’s GDP is strongly associated with personnel deployments, multivariate regression models show that the economic growth of host countries and commodity exports to China are also significant explanatory factors. On the other hand, total exports from host countries are not statistically significant and exhibit a negative, counter-intuitive relationship across all models. In addition to presenting these and other findings, the article offers a brief discussion of their implications.
Abstract In 2020, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), women saw an increase in their participation in the electoral race for municipal legislatures. Similarly, the number of self-declared Black candidates also rose. Yet despite higher participation among both groups, and even with the support of affirmative action policies in that election cycle, we still observe a persistent pattern of underrepresentation of Black women. Existing scholarship shows that several variables shape the electoral participation of minoritized groups. Drawing on a qualitative approach, this article examines the trajectories and challenges faced by Black women candidates for city council in the 2020 elections, with the aim of identifying the key obstacles they themselves highlight as obstacles to their campaign development. In doing so, we seek to shed light on the dynamics that contribute to the continued underrepresentation of this group in Brazilian politics. Our research corpus consists of interviews conducted with Black women candidates in Brazil’s Northeast region. Overall, we identify key elements described by our interlocutors as central to the challenges they faced during the electoral process – factors that extend beyond campaign financing and include mental health, racial and gender-based violence, and limited familiarity with legal and electoral regulations, among others.
Abstract This article analyzes the distinctive features of the Center of Government (CoG) under President Jair Bolsonaro, using the framework developed by Cavalcante and Batista (2018). The CoG encompasses a set of units, whether formally or informally linked to the presidential hierarchy, whose primary role is to support presidential decision-making. Our analysis draws on federal legislation that structures the Executive Branch and on Bolsonaro’s official daily schedule to trace interaction patterns and decision-making dynamics within the CoG. The findings show that, although Bolsonaro inherited the basic CoG structure from previous administrations, he diverged from his predecessors by eliminating thematic secretariats within the presidency and by prioritizing interaction with the Institutional Security Bureau over other offices. He also reoriented political coordination toward the Casa Civil, particularly from 2021 onward, when the administration intensified negotiations with political actors during the second half of his term.
Abstract This article provides a review on the main arguments of the book ‘Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg’ by Ben Bradlow, aiming to situate it in a broader contemporary discussion in the Urban Studies literature. Drawing from the premise that urban inequalities in informal settlements are the greatest challenge facing local governments today, the author asks why some cities are more effective than others at reducing inequalities in the built environment. By comparing changes in institutions and policies for the distribution of urban goods in two cities – São Paulo (Brazil) and Johannesburg (South Africa) – after each of their democratic transitions, he argues that the configuration of ‘urban power’, which happens in a dual process between ‘embeddedness’ and ‘cohesion’, is what explains the variation in responses between local governments.
Abstract This research note introduces ENETRIX as an essential platform designed to document, monitor, and evaluate Brazil’s energy diplomacy. The platform provides users with crucial information derived from international energy agreements to which Brazil is a signatory. Developed by the Energy Security Studies Group (Gesene) within the Department of International Relations at the Federal University of Paraíba, ENETRIX serves as a strategic tool for promoting international energy cooperation. This article explores the platform’s potential as a vehicle for data diplomacy, aimed at strengthening global energy partnerships. The article also seeks to contextualize ENETRIX within broader discussions on data governance and state-managed repositories of international agreements. The analysis details the platform’s development process, architectural design, key functionalities, and the tangible impacts it has achieved thus far. Additionally, this exploration offers a critical analysis of the challenges and lessons learned throughout the platform’s implementation and ongoing operation.
Abstract The legislative success of presidential agendas in Brazil has traditionally been attributed to formal coalitions formed by the Executive. While the centrality of these coalitions is widely recognized, a key question remains: do formal governing coalitions secure sufficient votes to guarantee this success? To explore this question, the study develops a Legislative Performance Index (LPI) that measures the contribution of each party’s votes to the approval of Executive-backed bills. Drawing on data from 2,030 roll-call votes in the Chamber of Deputies spanning 1995 to 2016, the analysis reveals that presidents have consistently achieved high legislative success rates – with a 92% approval rate of their legislative agenda. However, votes from formal coalitions alone would have yielded substantially lower approval rates, at just 66%. In practice, majority governance in Brazilian presidentialism has relied heavily on support from parties outside formal coalitions, with informal coalitions playing a crucial role at various times. These findings underscore the importance of analyzing party behavior beyond formal alliances and recognizing the interplay of formal and informal coalitions in shaping legislative outcomes.
This article primarily aims to understand the extent to which women holding key party positions can contribute to improve women candidates' access to public funding for their campaigns. We have looked into the 2018 election to the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil’s lower house of Congress) and present the following hypotheses: the greater presence of women in their parties' key decision-making levels leads to better access for women who ran for office, and left-wing parties have more women on their executive committees and, consequently, better-funded women candidates. We have used data from the Electoral Data Repository and the Party Information Management System, disclosed by Brazil's Superior Electoral Court. With these data, we were able to measure the number of women holding key party positions and the total public funds allocated to women candidates. We have used descriptive statistics and beta regression analysis to work on this information. We observed that the presence of women at the highest ranking positions at the state level could be positively linked to the total funding received by women candidates. Investigations into national and state levels, on the other hand, did not show evidence of our second hypothesis, as left-wing parties performed very similarly to parties across the ideological spectrum.
This article explores Brazil’s foreign policy related to agribusiness, examining how the Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA) leverages its legislative power to influence Brazilian Foreign Policy (BFP) in favour of agribusiness interests. This exploratory study highlights the interests at stake and the formal mechanisms employed by the sector to influence Brazil's international agenda. The analysis covers the period from 2015 to 2022, encompassing two legislative terms under the presidencies of Rousseff (2015-2016), Temer (2016-2018) and Bolsonaro (2019-2022). Methodologically, the study qualifies as research in progress, presenting partial results from an ongoing analysis of FPA activities in the Legislative on foreign policy issues. To this end, the study takes a qualitative approach, drawing on data collected from the House of Representatives database. After discussing the subfield of Foreign Policy Analysis, its focus on interest groups, and the role of the Legislative in foreign policy. Along with a brief overview of agribusiness in Brazilian foreign policy, the study concludes that the FPA uses formal mechanisms, such as requirements, assessments, recommendations, legislative proposals, and the creation of parliamentary groups, to influence Brazilian foreign policy in favour of agribusiness interests.
This study examines Brazilian female legislators’ perceptions of gendered political violence by analyzing responses from 61 female federal deputies and 12 female senators (representing 81% of female legislators in office during the 56th legislature) to a self-administered questionnaire on the subject. The data indicate that gendered political violence affects a significant majority of these legislators, with 81% of respondents reporting firsthand experiences. For 90% of the interviewees, this violence discourages women from participating in politics, and according to 78%, it impacts women’s electoral outcomes. Among the legislators who reported experiencing gendered political violence, 62% indicated that it took place within the premises of the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate, and 36.2% within their political parties. Additionally, 54.7% stated that this violence undermines their ability to carry out their mandates effectively. The data indicate that violence against women in the National Congress is systematic, infringes on their rights, compromises their ability to fulfill their mandates, and negatively affects their lives.
This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of variations in subnational policies and the factors that explain them. Some studies attribute these differences to the uneven distribution of state infrastructure and capacity at the subnational level, while others emphasize the role of policy legacies, actors, ideology, ideas, and networks to explain subnational policy variations. This study, analyses variations in policy changes in secondary education across Brazilian states and the factors that influenced them through a qualitative and comparative approach based on data collected through document analysis, survey, and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that the high level of ambiguity and conflict in national guidelines led to significant variations in state policies. Subnational policies resulted from an intersection between horizontal cooperation, policy legacies, political leadership, and bureaucratic activism, though the influence of these factors varied across states.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s aim to turn Brazil into a global environmental leader has faced three different challenges: conceptual, economic, and political-institutional tensions. In this article, we discuss and analyze how the concept of climate justice, the old tension between development and environmental protection, and the relationship with the Congress and social movements have been reconfigured in Lula’s third term in office. We discuss these tensions in light of Brazil’s environmental history and of the perception of important actors in the socio-environmental arena. Lastly, we address ways to overcome these three tensions by further empowering democratic institutions and practices.
This article aims to look into the thought of jurist Alberto Pasqualini as part of the early stages of organization of the ideology of ‘trabalhismo’, which appears in the author’s work as a political theology. This doctrine emerged as the foundation of Getúlio Vargas’s Estado Novo and had to adapt to the democratic regime of the 1946 Republic. We argue that Alberto Pasqualini played a fundamental in this endeavor. He acted both as a theorist of ‘trabalhismo’ and as one of its main political organizers. Drawing from his books, speeches, and interviews, we will demonstrate here that the moral and political foundations of the ‘trabalhismo’ built by Pasqualini was based on premises aligned with Catholicism and the social doctrine of the Church, as well as his position on major issues of his time, including social and economic development, state planning, and the Cold War. To this end, we will address his writings in the context of Catholic thought represented by the papal encyclicals ‘Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno’.
This article explores and evaluates recent conceptual and theoretical developments in the literature on climate justice. Initially shaped by the first generation of IPCC reports and rooted in applied ethics, early climate justice debates framed the climate crisis mainly as a mitigation issue, exacerbated by global and intergenerational collective action dilemmas, requiring ethical principles for resolution. However, with increasingly dire climate forecasts and the policy inertia of the past three decades, climate justice theories have shifted toward a political economy-centered approach. This shift reframes the issue from simply setting just emissions standards to addressing questions of productive justice within a historically situated global energy regime. The article concludes by addressing two critical challenges for production-focused climate justice theories: how to implement radical political action and how to reconceptualize our normative relationship with future generations.
Machiavelli’s republicanism is grounded on two primary aspirations: the preservation of freedom within republics and the expansion of their territories. However, these goals are not indefinitely compatible, as an imperialist foreign policy ultimately undermines a free way of life. An influential understanding of Machiavelli’s ‘republican dilemma’ suggests that he unequivocally prioritized imperial expansion over preserving freedom when these ends collided. This interpretation points to Machiavelli’s endorsement of the Roman model, which sacrificed its own freedom to expand its dominion over other peoples, as evidence of such a preference. This article challenges the notion of Machiavelli's imperialist intent, arguing that this interpretation not only overlooks Machiavelli’s critique of Roman imperialism but also ignores a non-imperialist alternative to territorial expansion presented in the ‘Discorsi’: the formation of leagues or confederations of free states for mutual defense. The league-based model of territorial expansion is the only approach that can effectively update Machiavelli’s international thought, aligning best with the contemporary republican ideal of freedom as non-domination.
The primary goal of this article is to examine the dynamics of changes in expenditure allocation in Brazil’s federal budget over the past two decades, highlighting periods of incrementalism and punctuation based on the theoretical and methodological assumptions of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET). To achieve this, a database of the approved federal budget from 2000 to 2021 was created, with budget classifications coded into 21 policy domains following the methodology of the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP). Descriptive analyses of the federal government’s expenditures and budget changes were conducted across 21 domains, along with the calculation of the L-Kurtosis indicator to assess the distribution of budget changes and identify their types. The results show that Brazil’s trajectory of budget changes is characterized by punctuations, as indicated by an L-Kurtosis value of 0.657. This pattern stems from a reform agenda initiated in 2003 to expand social policies, which began to reverse after 2015 due to a political, economic, and institutional crisis. Despite the rigidity of Brazil’s budget and institutional constraints, political preferences also play a significant role in shaping government priorities and driving budget changes.
Brazil faces widespread illegal gold mining, particularly in the Amazon rainforest, with profound environmental, economic, and social implications, as half of the country's gold output is suspected of having dubious origin. This paper delves into how regulations have shaped Brazil's gold industry over the years and fostered illegality. It also brings to light recent advancements in this field, such as adopting electronic invoices for the wildcat gold trade and suspending the ‘good faith’ presumption applied to wildcat gold transactions, which previously undermined accountability. Despite these significant strides, the paper emphasizes the ongoing need for measures to regulate the gold industry, bolster law enforcement, and mitigate environmental and social damage.
It is well known that during times of social unrest, replacing the constitution is one of the first proposals to emerge, at least in Latin America, as if this constitutional shift could resolve any problem. Constitutional substitution is not a new phenomenon in Latin America; it actually began after the region’s redemocratization. However, it is striking that, despite similar conditions of social unrest, many other countries in the region have not undergone such an encompassing constitutional reform. Our main focus here is to analyze the persistence of constitutions in Latin American countries. We thus ask: What conditions lead democratic countries to keep their constitutions? Using a configurational approach, our preliminary results are promising. Together, four pathways explain why some countries have not replaced their constitutions in democratic contexts, with special emphasis on the number of rights enshrined in these fundamental laws.
This article examines the effect of democratic attitudes on voting in 2022. Our hypothesis is that the rising prominence of the topic of democracy in politics and in the public debate, starting in 2013 and becoming more pronounced after 2018, resulted in a division of the electorate into two camps based on their varying degrees of support for democratic principles — something not observed in earlier elections. To test this hypothesis, we utilized two surveys: the 2010 AmericasBarometer and the 2023 Clivagens Políticas no Brasil. The overall result shows that democratic attitudes — such as support for voting as a method for selecting who governs, the separation of powers, political participation, the rule of law, and minority rights — played a more significant role in explaining the vote for president in 2022 than they did in 2010. More than that, we identified a dominant pattern: except for political participation, there is a positive relationship between democratic attitudes and the vote for Lula.
