Democracy Under Attack

This book makes a significant contribution to ongoing discussions about the crisis of democracy by delving into the impacts of digital communication technologies on the 2022 Brazilian elections. Written by a multidisciplinary group of experts in the field of digital politics, the chapters explore not only how these technologies are appropriated by political actors, but also how the affordances offered by digital platforms and their role in promoting them affect electoral integrity. Consequently, the book also contributes to debates concerning the urgent necessity of regulating digital corporations.

In facing the potentially harmful effects of the uses of digital technologies on electoral integrity, the Brazilian case offers key lessons. Brazil stands as one of the most important global democracies, but it is also one that has been under attack from autocratic and extremist forces in the past decade. These forces have leveraged digital communication technologies extensively to advance their agendas and launch disinformation campaigns. Furthermore, the country is one of the main markets for digital companies. Their role in Brazil and how Brazilian actors react to them has a widespread impact in Latin America and beyond. As this book shows, the 2022 electoral process serves as a compelling case study of how various actors, including electoral authorities, civil society organizations, journalists, scholars, and prodemocracy activists, came together in the months leading up to the election to combat the rampant abuses facilitated by digital technologies and defend electoral integrity.

Because of the similarities between the Brazilian context and the challenges being faced by other democracies, this book will be of interest to a broad international audience that is worried about the crisis of democracy and its resilience, as well as the impacts of asymmetric polarization.

Auteur

Marisa von Bülow is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. Author of several books and articles on digital activism, social movements, and transnational civil society networks, among them Building Transnational Networks: Civil Society and the Politics of Trade in the Americas (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010). Since 2024, she is the Director of the Political Science Institute at the University of Brasilia.

Leonardo Avritzer was Professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil and is currently a professor at Escola Nacional de Administração Pública (ENAP) in Brasilia, Brazil. He is the author of several books and articles on participation, civil society, and democracy. He co-edited the book Eleições 2022 e a Reconstrução da Democracia no Brasil ("The 2022 election and the reconstruction of democracy in Brazil") (Autêntica, 2023). Avritzer is the coordinator of the Institute of Democracy and the Democratization of Communications, which brings together researchers from four Brazilian institutions and three international ones.

Eliara Santana is a journalist and holds a PhD in Linguistic Studies. She was an Associate Researcher of the Centre for Logic, Epistemology and Science History (CLE) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. She is the author of Jornal Nacional, um Ator Político em Cena ("Jornal Nacional - a political actor on the scene") (Meraki, 2022) and many articles on media literacy, communication and politics, and disinformation.