The long road to democracy in Brazil - and present concerns

The Inaugural Lecture of Professor Leslie Bethell
Visiting Professor at the King's Brazil Institute, School of Global Affairs, King's College London

Join the King's Brazil Institute and the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King's College London for the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Leslie Bethell.

Abstract
Brazil is the fourth largest democracy in the world – after India, the United States and Indonesia. But it’s only been a democracy for less than 30 years. Under various regimes, from independence in 1822 to the late 1980s, there were elections in Brazil but they were generally neither free nor fair and popular participation was always severely restricted. The democracy established and consolidated under the 1988 Constitution has, like all democracies, many flaws. Political reform has been the subject of debate for more than two decades, although little has been effected. Democracy in Brazil is currently facing its greatest crisis. Can the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Workers’ Party) in 2016 be considered to have strengthened or weakened democratic institutions and democratic values in Brazil? Is liberal representative democracy under threat in Brazil as it is in so many countries at present?

About Professor Leslie Bethell
Leslie Bethell is Emeritus Professor of Latin American History, University of London; Emeritus Fellow, St Antony’s College, Oxford; Senior Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, D.C; and, since 2011, Visiting Professor, Brazil Institute, King’s College London for one term each year. He was Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies, University of London (1987-92); founding Director of the Centre for Brazilian Studies, University of Oxford (1997-2007); and Editor of the Cambridge History of Latin America (12 vols, Cambridge, 1984-2008). His publications most relevant to this talk include (with Ian Roxborough) Latin America between the Second World War and the Cold War, 1944-1948 (Cambridge, 1992); chapters on Politics 1930-45, 1945-64, 1964-85 (with Celso Castro) and 1985-2002 (with Jairo Nicolau) in the Cambridge History of Latin America vol. IX (2008); and ‘Populism, neo-populism and the Left in Brazil: from Getúlio to Lula’, in Cynthia Arnson and Carlos de la Torre (eds), Latin American Populism of the Twenty-First Century (Washington D.C./Baltimore, 2013). He lives in Rio de Janeiro.

This event will be followed by a wine reception at Chapters Restaurant, 2nd Floor, King's Building, Strand Campus, King's College London.

Inaugural Lecture of Professor Leslie Bethell: The long road to democracy in Brazil - and present concerns