Takis S. Pappas, a contributor to the @NEDemocracy‘s @JoDemocracy on the rise of modern populism https://t.co/e94BvKAw76 via @TEDTalks
— Democracy Digest (@demdigest) August 21, 2020
BRAZIL AND MEXICO: POPULIST OPPOSITES?
Politics makes strange bedfellows, notes Michael Reid, Senior Editor and Columnist on Latin America at The Economist: Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is a right-wing sympathizer of military rule. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is a traditionalist leftist who demonizes the business community. Together, they’ve had to tackle the biggest pandemic in recent history. And, along the way, they discover more in common than differences…
Brazil and Mexico make up about half of Latin America’s land, population, and economy, but for Bolsonaro and AMLO, populism is the important political fact that counts, says Reid, who joined the Altamar podcast to spell out the challenges for the region’s two economic engines and how they’ll navigate a post-pandemic world. While Reid paints a bleak near-term future for both countries, he thinks Brazil will fare better economically than Mexico. RTWT
