Marisa von Bülow is the director of the Political Science Institute of the University of Brasília, Brazil. She is the author or co-author of six books on democracy and social movements, transnational networks, and digital activism in Latin America. Her articles have been published in the American Political Science Review, Mobilization, Government & Opposition, and Latin American Politics and Society, among other journals. She is a member of the Carnegie Civic Research Network.
Women play diverse roles in and exert major influence on popular movements against democratic erosion around the world, from Brazil to Hungary to India.
The coronavirus has been a wake-up call for global civil society. It will come out of the pandemic looking very different—and this change will be a significant factor in a now highly fluid international politics.
As Brazilian politicians argue over how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, civil society organizations from the country’s slums have come together to educate and advocate for their communities. But they cannot do it alone.
Mass protests garner significant attention, but what happens next is just as vital for achieving real and lasting change.
What conservative civic activism portends for global civil society.
Brazil seems strangely quiet. Protests come and go in cycles, but the change in activism is troubling amid increasing dissatisfaction with the country’s democracy.
Case studies from eight countries show how civic activism across the world is evolving and reveal crosscutting themes relevant to the future of civil society support.
