Doctoral Degrees (Political Science)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Political Science) by Subject "Brazil -- Social conditions -- 21st century"

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    Meddling by consent? Brazil’s strategy of democracy promotion through UNASUR
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2020-12) Breitegger, Melina Stephanie; Van der Westhuizen, Janis; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Political Science.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis addresses the gap in the literature on democracy promotion by regional powers through regional organizations in the Global South. This thesis focuses on the regional power of Brazil and analyses its democracy promotion strategy through the regional organization of UNASUR –the Union of South American Nations. Based on an embedded, single case study design, the study evaluates the willingness and capability of Brazil to promote democracy in three instances of democratic disruption. Thereby, it shows the strengths and weaknesses of Brazil’s leadership strategy within the context of UNASUR during three administrations (Lula da Silva, Dilma Rousseff, and Michel Temer). Brazil’s regional power status in South America, its interest in regional stability, and its pivotal role in the creation of UNASUR and its democracy promotion framework stands in contrast to the variance of Brazil’s leadership performance within UNASUR’s democracy promotion activities in Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela. UNASUR’s democracy promotion in Bolivia’s constitutional crisis (2008) was considered a success, the sanctioning of the impeachment of the president of Paraguay (2012) provoked mixed reactions among analysts and politicians, and efforts to solve Venezuela’s political and humanitarian crisis (2013-) have been evaluated as a failure. Because of Brazil’s role as the single regional power within a regional organization of multilateral structure, UNASUR’s mixed record is associated with Brazil’s (lack of) leadership. Based on the central theoretical concept of consensual hegemony (Burges, 2008), it is argued that Brazil’s leadership strategy rests upon consensus creation. UNASUR provided the necessary institutional mantle for Brazil’s consensual hegemony, through which Brazil could facilitate joint regional action for democracy promotion. Consensual hegemony offered the opportunity of a low-cost leadership strategy. However, a successful consensual hegemonic strategy rests on at least 2 out of 3 preconditions: the attractiveness of the regional powers vision (domestic factor), the absence of competition for regional leadership and a relatively homogenous ideological regional environment (regional factor), and the absence of intervention by external actors (international factor). Therefore, the variance in Brazil’s leadership capacity in democracy promotion can be explained by the degree of Brazil’s domestic economic and political strength, the level of ideological coherence between left-wing and right-wing governments, the varying involvement of external powers in South American affairs; in combination with the degree of power imbalance between Brazil and the target states.The thesis reveals how leadership in democracy promotion happens in the context of a regional environment where intervention in domestic affairs of neighbouring states is against regional norms, and where states refuse to transfer power from the multilateral to the supranational level. Democracy promotion through (multilateral) regional organizations allowed Brazil to reconcile the norms of non-intervention and national sovereignty with the practice of democracy promotion in South America. The research findings offer an opportunity for further theory building and encourage empirical and theoretical research on regional powers’ leadership within regional organizations’ democracy promotion activities in diverse regional contexts.