Intelectuais e a “crise da democracia”: uma análise das operações sociais da circulação internacional de ideias a partir do livro “Como as Democracias Morrem”

Abstract

This dissertation is part of the research agenda developed within the Laboratory for Studies on Political and Cultural Elites (LEEPOC), which is dedicated to understanding the intersections between cultural and political domains. In this context, we examine aspects related to the affirmation of specific “diagnoses” and “prognoses” regarding the so-called “crisis of democracy” within the North American academic sphere, as well as the processes of exportation and importation of these interpretations into the recent Brazilian context. More specifically, we investigate the relevance of the book How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, in contemporary appropriations and debates surrounding this theme. Thus, we focus on this work to apprehend the social operations involved in the international circulation of ideas between distinct national configurations. By drawing on diverse sources—particularly biographical and contextual data—we aim to identify historical determinants that shape the political and academic fields in both countries; the asymmetrical relations embedded in international intellectual exchanges; the social bases of the authors’ authority; and the specific features of the different editions of this work by the two political scientists.