This study delves into the thematic and methodological configuration of Brazilian Political Science. Through the study of the relational dynamics between different research agendas and their specific approaches, we identified the centrality of certain themes and the methodological density within Brazilian Political Science. We conducted an analysis of 1,849 PhD theses and Master dissertations completed between 2013 and 2020 in eleven Postgraduate Programs. Our examination encompassed titles, abstracts, and keywords in these works, with data sourced from the CAPES theses […]

How does the election of far-right populist leaders contribute to the environmental crisis? We delved into this question by conducting an in-depth case study on the impact of Jair Bolsonaro’s government (2019-2022) on the rise of deforestation rates in the Legal Amazon. Our focus was on forest deforestation oversight, the main tool for enforcing Brazilian environmental policy against deforestation, particularly in the short term. Since 2019, deforestation rates in the Amazon have surged to concerning levels, identified as the primary […]

Climate change is on its way to significantly impact the world economy and people’s wellbeing. It is one of the most unequal problems faced by humankind, where those who caused the problem (richer people) are much better protected from its impacts, while those at greatest risk are the poor people who contributed least to climate change. Solutions to the problem have been negotiated by countries under the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which has proven incapable […]

In the article “Following the trail of words: mapping trending topics of graduate research in Brazil’s IR (1987-2018)”, DOI: 10.1590/1981-3821202400010002, published at 18(1): e0003, Page 01, Affiliation, Where it reads: […]

This paper advances our understanding of the Brazilian IR scholarship by exploring the topics addressed and the geographic scope adopted by its authors, tracing their evolution over time. We utilize data from 2417 master’s theses and doctoral dissertations from all IR graduate programs in the country, spanning the years 1987 to 2018. By employing a structural topic model, we identify latent topics present in the abstracts of these documents. This analysis not only allows us to trace a thematic profile […]

What challenges are posed for building analytical frameworks and empirical studies on regional integration processes in the South? The authors aim to contribute to this debate by producing a detailed empirical analysis of Brazil’s foreign policy regarding the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and South American regional integration. From a theoretical-methodological standpoint, the authors introduce an important innovation in this work, with a multilevel analysis of the Mercosur regional integration process, looking into the domestic, regional, and systemic levels. […]

In multiparty presidential regimes, the head of the Executive manages a heterogeneous political base through a series of instruments. Among these tools, the use of patronage in appointments for governmental positions and the deployment of pork barrel to please congressional representatives have been highlighted by the literature as the glue that holds together multiparty coalitions. However, current studies neglect the role of politicians as active actors in multiparty presidential regimes in channeling resources to their constituencies and parties when holding […]

Introduction Increasing global warming, health pandemics, accelerated losses of biodiversity, growing deforestation rates, frequent and non-anticipated climate events such as off-the-scale floods, longer droughts, storms, typhons and cyclones in Brazil and world-wide are also political agendas. They have produced intense public debates about the responsibility of states and corporations, the connections between the climate emergency and development models, including the role of the fossil economy, agribusiness and mining in obstructing sustainable transition policies. The climate emergency has also steered governments […]

Climate governance in Brazil is necessarily connected to the interests of three sectors: deforestation and land use change, agriculture, and energy, which, combined, represent around 90 percent of the country’s emissions. While there is a significant number of studies on the first sector, few studies have looked into the bottlenecks of decarbonization in the agricultural and energy sectors. Thus, this article addresses some modulations in Brazilian climate politics and policy by analyzing the interest groups associated with low-carbon transitions in […]

Understanding the impact of political and institutional factors on the fight against climate change has become increasingly important in the global debate on sustainability. From a political science perspective, it is crucial to research how different democratic institutions affect the development of climate policies. To contribute to this agenda, we discuss the role of participatory institutions in this policy sector. We offer a global literature review of cases where participatory mechanisms have helped improve the tools used to combat global […]

Climate change affects individuals differently. Women are one of the social groups most vulnerable to climate change. Since the legal study of climate change is associated with the idea of correcting imbalances, the goal of this study is to assess the extent to which state laws addressing climate change take into consideration gender vulnerabilities. To achieve this, the study has been structured in three phases: initially, an examination of the concept of climate justice; next, a review of the vulnerabilities […]

Studies on the environment, public opinion, and voting have shown that, despite widespread support for the environmental cause among the population, this support does not necessarily translate into votes. This article will look into concepts including agenda setting, framing, and media effects to provide a background of how the environment became a prominent issue in public opinion. It will also test hypotheses that argue for the significance of issue decision salience, in conjunction with the issue ownership theory, to explain […]