Professor Adrian Gurza Lavalle Explores Brazil’s Democratic Struggles
Professor Adrian Lavalle, associate professor of political science, University of Sao Paulo, has delivered a speech titled “Democratic Politics and the Far Right: Civil Society in Brazil’s New Republic”. The lecture highlighted the resilience of Brazil's civil society in protecting the flame of democracy even during the far-right ruling.
Professor Lavalle explained how civil society in Brazil has fostered the survival of democracy in the face of erosion, even when the far-right was in power. The Brazilian society not only remained, but it also spared democracy. Lavalle went over what the civil society organizations did to become a driving force in Brazilian democracy after the return to civilian rule in 1985. He emphasized the need for the 1988 Constitution, which did not only limit citizen participation to voting but extended it to citizen authority through the use of organizations of civil society as well as the control carried out by the civil society institutions.
However, it is also a fact that democratic achievements of the past were seriously undermined during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022) due to the attacks on and underfunding of numerous civil society organizations. Although several such institutions survived, still pointed out that the extreme right-wing elements are becoming more strategic with each passing day and will possibly incur more extensive risks in future elections.
The last part of the talk reflected his standpoint: The function of Brazil’s civil society as a defender of democratic rights remains unconquerable.
