Estudos Avançados #113 addresses democratic crisis, denialism, and journalism under pressure
Issue #113 of the journal Estudos Avançados, corresponding to the first four months of 2025, focuses on the setbacks and disruptions that democracy has faced both in Brazil and in other countries. It consists of three dossiers: "Democracy," "Denialism and Authoritarianism," and "Disinformation and Democracy," which total 19 articles written by 34 researchers from several Brazilian universities.
The publication's editor, sociologist Sérgio Adorno, points out the convergence of the three sets of texts and highlights that the first of them, "Democracy," explores the current dilemmas of this government regime, "many of which are manifested in the decline in levels of trust in political institutions and the emergence of populist political projects."
The topic is discussed in the opening article of the dossier, "Does Democracy Have a Future?," by Elisa Reis, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). She argues that, although its intrinsically expansive nature does not guarantee the survival of democracy by itself, it can provide the basis for the development of political strategies that, by combining human and technological resources, manage to "foster innovative ways to promote justice, inclusion, and participation, the elements that give life to democratic coexistence".
The debate on the principle of equality, one of the pillars of democracy, is essential in an era in which "social inequalities of all kinds are deepening," as the editor points out. The issue is addressed in an article by José Reinaldo de Lima Lopes, from USP's Law School, based on the concept of equality as belonging defended by Aristotle. For the professor, democratic and republican legitimacy depends on the idea of general justice in which equality means belonging and indifference to it constitutes fertile ground for distrust and authoritarian solutions.
The Brazilian case
Bringing the discussion about democracy to the Brazilian situation, political scientist Bruno Reis, from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), analyzes the political crisis experienced by the country from 2013 to 2022. His work seeks a synthesis of the components present in the period, examining topics such as institutional dynamics and their conditions of stability, dysfunctionalities in the regulation of electoral campaign financing, the drift towards a government hostile to the constitutional order, the interaction of the Brazilian crisis with the international framework of democratic erosion, and the prospects for overcoming the "destructive drift."
The crisis of Brazilian democracy is also discussed in a study by seven researchers from USP, the São Paulo State University (UNESP), the Federal University of ABC (UFABC), and the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP). The work reflects on the legal and institutional dimension of this crisis and its specificities in the global context. The authors state that "it is necessary to consider the problem of democracy from a legal and institutional perspective in a systematic way and in all its complexity, and not in a manner restricted to the themes usually explored: the party-electoral and government systems, and the role of the Judiciary."
Intelligences
The dossier also addresses changes that impact the dynamics of democratic regimes today, such as the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). Researchers from UFMG and the Federal University of Goiás (UFG) point out that the coexistence of individual, collective, and artificial intelligences poses new challenges for democratic theory in the context of human-machine interaction.
They state that there is no a priori determination about how humans will reconstruct their forms of learning in the layers of individual and collective intelligences when feeding on feedback produced in the AI layer: "The challenges are enormous and human centrality is central to the future of democracy."
| Reproduction of O Mais Importante É Inventar o Brasil que Nós Queremos (2021), by Elian Almeida, image that illustrates issue #113 |
Claims
Another topic addressed by the dossier is the unfulfilled promises of liberal-democratic traditions regarding feminist and anti-racist demands. The article by Luciana Tatagiba, from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), and Flávia Biroli, from the Univeristy of Brasília (UnB), provides an interpretation of what is at stake in the normality and in the crisis of democracies based on interviews conducted with Brazilian feminist and anti-racist leaders in 2023.
The dossier concludes with a case study by Jefferson Nascimento, a doctoral student at the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ). He analyzes the process of militarization and dedemocratization in Venezuela during the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Nascimento comments that during Chávez's term the military received incentives to participate in politics at institutional levels. The relationship with the government deepened under Maduro's administration, ensuring their survival in power amid the economic crisis and attacks by opponents, but contributing to the erosion of the country's democratic system.
The decline of the democratic system in various parts of the world is accentuated directly or indirectly by several factors. One of them is denialism, the belief in a supposed loss of legitimacy of science from different perspectives.
Denialism
The second dossier in issue #113, "Denialism and Authoritarianism," discusses the topic from different perspectives. Among them, the journal’s editor cites the absence of a denialist movement in Brazil on the scale of those occurring in other countries, the predominance of denialist attacks on public policy issues (vaccines, universities, and social policies), the assumption of epistemic denialism, and clashes between epistemic authority and the uses of science based on the debates that took place in the COVID-19 Parliamentary Investigation Commission.
Adorno adds that denialism "is equally present, active, and strong in the public and political sphere, especially in this era of polarization and right-wing extremism." This is revealed in the articles that address anti-intellectualism, the cultivation of masculinity, and the elimination of gender perspectives in the policies of the Ministry of Women, Family, and Human Rights during the Bolsonaro government. The closing of the set of texts is a review of the book Dicionário de Negacionismos no Brasil ("Dictionary of Negacionisms in Brazil"), organized by José Szwako and José Luiz Ratton.
Disinformation
But denialism is not an isolated phenomenon that erodes the credibility of information available to the public, a fundamental resource for the full exercise of citizenship in a democratic society. In this context of deteriorating public debate, the dossier "Disinformation and Democracy" completes the analysis of the complex contemporary situation with articles written by members and guests of IEA's research group on Journalism, Law, and Freedom.
The articles discuss topics such as the need to deepen the concept of disinformation, the trends in transnational journalism with its data validation processes by information agencies, the risks to journalism and democracy represented by digital platforms, the curtailment of freedom of the press and expression promoted and encouraged by the federal government, especially under the Bolsonaro administration, and the role of social media in disrupting democracy.
The list below contains the names of the authors who have contributed with each one of the addressed themes:
Democracy
Does Democracy Have a Future? - Elisa Reis
Equality and Justice Today, on the Steps of Aristotle - José Reinaldo de Lima Lopes
Institutional Dynamics and International Ballast: Toward a Diagnosis of the Brazilian Political Crisis (2013-2022) - Bruno Pinheiro Wanderley Reis
Crisis of Brazilian Democracy and Legal-Institutional Arrangements - Murilo Gaspardo, Maria Paula Dallari Bucci, Vanessa Corsetti Gonçalves Teixeira, Carolina Gabas Stuchi, José Duarte Neto, Rubens Beçak, and Daniel Campos de Carvalho
Artificial Intelligence and Democracy: Humans, Machines, and Algorithmic Institutions - Fernando Filgueiras, Ricardo Fabrino Mendonça, and Virgílio Almeida
Feminist Critiques of Democracy in Brazil: Analysis of the Crisis and the Limits of Normality - Luciana Tatagiba and Flávia Biroli
Militarization and De-Democratization During the Chavista Governments in Venezuela - Jefferson Nascimento
Denialism and Authoritarianism
The Meanings of the Crisis or Reflective Manifesto on Denialism and Science - José Szwako
Epistemic Denialism - Renan Springer de Freitas
The Public Life of Scientific Facts: Science and Politics at the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission on the Pandemic in Brazil - Daniel Edler Duarte, Pedro Benetti, and Marcos César Alvarez
"Good War, Boy(s)!": Bolsonarism, "Anti-Intellectualism," and Masculinity - Maria Caramez Carlotto
"Woman" and "Family": Conventional Wisdom as Public Policy in the Bolsonaro Government - Marília Moschkovich
The Past, Intermittency, and Future of an Illusion - Daniel Afonso da Silva
From A to Z: a Guide to Understanding Denialism - Guilherme Queiroz Alves
Disinformation and Democracy
Disinformation, Democracy, and Regulation - Vitor Blotta and Eugênio Bucci
From Transnational Journalism to Blockchain Experiments in the Struggle Against Disinformation - Ben Hur Damenek and Magaly Prado
Threats to Journalism from Digital Platforms: Contributions to Regulation - Rogério Christofoletti
Shut up, Journalist: Intimidation and Disinformation as State Policies - Camilo Vannuchi, João Gabriel de Lima and Taís Gasparian
Social Media and Disruptions of Democracy - Clifford Griffin and Vitor Blottar