Brazil’s Democracy Suffers from Corruption

By Robert Muggah

Robert Muggah is a political economist specializing in security and development. He co-founded and directs research at the Igarapé Institute, a think and do tank devoted to using new technologies to tackle challenges related to public security and drug policy in Latin America. He is also co-founder and director of the SecDev Group, a cyber analytics group, and oversees projects in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In addition to advising United Nations agencies and the World Bank, Muggah is a fellow at the University of Oxford, the Graduate Institute in Geneva, and the University of San Diego. Muggah was named one of the top 100 most influential people working on violence and has given TED talks on fragile cities. His research, apps and data visualizations on homicide, arms, and cities have been featured by the BBC, CNN, FastCompany, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, New York Times, and Wired. Muggah is also affiliated with the World Economic Forum, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the Know Violence in Childhood Initiative, and other international networks. He has authored and contributed to over two dozen books and earned his PhD at the University of Oxford. 

Brazil is increasingly becoming a less stable country and has been ranked one of the most worsened countries over the past year by the 2017 Fragile States Index report from the Fund for Peace. The FSI measures a nation’s vulnerabilities based on a series of stability indicators. The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Robert Muggah, co-founder of the Igarapé Institute in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, about the factors behind Brazil’s increased instability, and why the country is still relatively stable compared to its neighbors.

The Cipher Brief: On this year’s Fragile States Index, Brazil is ranked one of the most-worsened countries from 2016 to 2017. Do you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?

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