Speakers:
Rachel Brule, Assistant Professor of Global Development Policy, Boston University
Bruno Carvalho, Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University
Patrick Heller, Professor of Sociology and International and Public Affairs, Brown University

Around the world, numerous nations have witnessed a resurgence of strongman politics — and with it, many governments are bypassing democratic norms and embracing populist ideals. Focusing on President Bolsonaro of Brazil and Prime Minister Modi of India, the speakers on this panel will discuss what...

In 2016, Marielle Franco was elected to Rio de Janeiro’s City Council as a member of the Socialism and Liberty Party. She was a woman of African descent from a favela community who earned a master’s degree. She was a single mother in a committed relationship with another woman. Marielle worked for the welfare of LGBTQ and poor populations, including families of deceased police members. She was a feminist, a bridge-builder and a radical defender of human rights. She represented hopes of political renewal for countless Brazilians. On March 14, 2018, Marielle and...

Guerrilla Marketing: Counterinsurgency and Capitalism in Colombia

A new book, Guerrilla Marketing, details the Colombian government’s efforts to transform Marxist guerrilla fighters in the FARC into consumer citizens. Alexander L. Fattal shows how the market has become one of the principal grounds on which counterinsurgency warfare is waged and postconflict futures are imagined in Colombia. This layered case study illuminates a larger phenomenon: the convergence of marketing and militarism in the twenty-first century. Taking a global view of...

On February 3, 2019, El Salvador held its sixth presidential election since the end of Salvadoran Civil War. Two weeks before the election, Nayib Bukele, a populist with clear authoritarian tendencies, held a comfortable lead in the polls. In the wake of soaring homicide rates and a series of corruption...

This paper studies the effects of local political concentration on long-run economic development in Brazil. Contrary to what is observed in other contexts and time periods, we document that municipalities with higher levels of political concentration prior to Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985) achieved higher levels of development in the long-run. We argue that the attempts of the military to undermine the power of traditional elites generated positive dynamics in terms of economic development. As evidence of this, we show that the municipalities where power was concentrated in...

This book focuses on the non-policy benefits that voters consider when deciding their vote. In addition to proposing policies, parties deliver non-policy benefits, such as competent economic management, constituency service, and patronage. This book provides a unified view of how politicians deliver broad portfolios of policy and non-policy benefits to their constituency. Non-policy resources also shape parties' ideological positions. The book shows which type of electoral offers parties target to either poorer or richer voters and their implications in terms of democratic responsiveness...

**THIS TALK WILL BE IN SPANISH**

Livestreaming link: https://www.facebook.com/harvardperu/videos/525344734609294/

The effects of worldwide structural transformations such as technological innovation, globalization, and climate change are altering the way we live in, threatening people’s values and core...

Rapid growth in the 19^th century placed Uruguay among the richest nations of the world on a per capita basis in the first half of the 20th, to slide into a period of decline for the rest of in the century. At the start of the 21^st century, it once again experienced rapid growth, in recent years surpassing...