Special issue of JLAS discusses the Political crisis in Brasil

November 2016

This virtual special issue just published by JLAS brings together a set of articles in order to give some background to the current political situation in Brazil.

Three of the articles assess the evolution of the Workers Party (PT)—a key player in the current crisis—over the last 4 decades, and the tensions involved when social movement parties move into government: Hernán Gómez Bruera examines party-civil society links under the Lula administration. Pedro Floriano Ribeiro describes the changes that occurred as the PT moved into government from 2003, and the transition from party-civil society links to state-civil society linkages. Oswaldo Do Amaral and Timothy Power review the scholarly literature on the last 35 years of the PT, placing it in the context of scholarship on the regional ‘turn to the left’. The articles by Gregory Michener and Carlos Pereira, and by Philip Kitzberger explore long-standing problems that seem to be recurring in the contemporary moment, namely corruption and the media, respectively. Michener and Pereira discuss the Mensalão scandal, a direct precursor to the corruption scandals that unseated Dilma Rousseff earlier this year. Kitzberger compares media strategies in Argentina and Brazil, showing the role of the media in developing corruption scandals.

Finally, two articles examine the fate of political issues associated especially with the PT governments. Eve Bratman investigates the activism around the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in the Brazilian Amazon, exploring the interplay between transnational activism and domestic economic interests. Teresa Melgar analyses the fate of participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre after the PT lost control of local government there in 2004.

Read the articles:

Securing Social Governability: Party-Movement Relationships in Lula’s Brazil, by Hernán Gómez Bruera. Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 47, Issue 3

An Amphibian Party? Organisational Change and Adaptation in the Brazilian Workers’ Party, 1980–2012 by Pedro Floriana Ribeiro.  Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 46, Issue 1 The PT at 35: Revisiting Scholarly Interpretations of the Brazilian Workers’ Party, by Oswaldo E. do Amaral and Timothy J. Power. Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 48, Issue 1 A Great Leap Forward for Democracy and the Rule of Law? Brazil’s Mensalão Trial, by Gregory Michener and Carlos Pereira. Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 48, Issue 3 Media Wars and the New Left: Governability and Media Democratisation in Argentina and Brazil by Philip Kitzberger. Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 48, Issue 3 Contradictions of Green Development: Human Rights and Environmental Norms in Light of Belo Monte Dam Activism byEVE Z. Bratman. Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 46, Issue 2