Panel: "Challenges to Democracy in Big Middle Income Countries: Brazil, India, South Africa"

Speakers: Frances Hagopian, Jorge Paulo Lemann Senior Lecturer on Government, Harvard University; Tariq Thachil, Associate Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University; Evan Lieberman, Total Professor of Political Science and Contemporary Africa, MIT

Over the last decade, developments in Russia, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Thailand, Venezuela and elsewhere have raised concerns about a global democratic recession. Although the number of democracies in the world has remained stable, the crisis of Western liberal democracies and the rise of China and Russia suggest that storm clouds may be on the horizon. This panel looks at the state of democracy in three big countries: Brazil, India, and South Africa. In all three countries, democracy is well-established but challenged. Because all three countries are influential regional powers, the impact of democracy’s failure in any of them would be felt across the globe.

Presented in collaboration with the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University