Explaining Brazil

In any democratic republic, it’s normal for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to clash. That’s a sign of mutual oversight. It’s also normal for politicians to make concessions to their adversaries. That’s a sign of democracy. But the sequence of recent events in Brazilian politics has turned into a sweeping narrative about what happens when these dynamics of checks and balances slide into sheer revanchism and bargaining over the rule of law. Send us your feedback Support the s...

Carlos Nobre, head of the Planetary Science Pavilion at COP30 in the Amazon, talks to us about the conference’s results, the climate emergency we are living through, and what Brazil can still do. Send us your feedback Support the show

Over the past decade, Brazilian lawmakers have steadily built up procedures to expand their powers over the purse. That has included increasing the overall volume of congressional grants; making a large share of them mandatory spending; limiting the Executive’s discretion over when to release those funds, and creating ways to erase transparency and traceability from the process. A perfect recipe for corruption, which has now trickled down to state and municipal levels. But the Supreme Court ...

Justice Luís Roberto Barroso is retiring. We unpack how factors such as trust, political ties, and electoral considerations may guide President Lula’s next choice for the court. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or on The Brazilian Report. Send us your feedback Support the show

Brazil’s Congress is discussing a proposal for income tax reform. Backed by the Lula administration, the bill seeks to make the country’s system more progressive. But just how unequal are taxes in Brazil? This week, we host economist Davi Bhering, who co-authored a Paris School of Economics study on Brazil’s tax income system. In our newly released episode of the Explaining Brazil podcast, he unpacks: Why Brazil’s income inequality may be higher than previously estimated.How the ...

A massive police operation exposed how deep Brazil's largest criminal organization has penetrated the legitimate economy. Rafael Alcadipani, a professor at the FGV’s School of Public Administration and a member of the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, unpacks: How the PCC evolved into a mafia-like organization, with multiple economic activities.The impacts of this expansion on democracy.Brazil’s federal and state-level capacity to combat organized crime.How the United States might play...

The final stage of Jair Bolsonaro’s coup trial kicked off on September 2 in Brasília. After months of evidence-gathering, arguments and testimonies, the justices are expected to deliver their ruling by September 12, in what is arguably the most consequential trial in Brazil’s recent history. At the center of the case are the riots that occurred on January 8, 2023. They looked eerily like January 6 in the United States — but worse: crowds stormed not only Congress, but also the presidential p...