: Democracy on a Tightrope: Politics, Bureaucracy, and the Risks of Imbalance

In this episode of the Review of Democracy podcast, Gabriel Pereira speaks with Gabriela Lotta about Democracy on a Tightrope: Politics and Bureaucracy in Brazil,co-authored with Pedro Abramovay and recently published by Central European University Press .

Drawing on the Brazilian case, the conversation explores the risks that emerge when the relationship between politics and bureaucracy breaks down: on the one hand, therise of technocratic governance and the “fetishization of meritocracy”; on the other, the erosion of bureaucratic institutions by political leaders.

Through a series of concrete policy cases, Lotta reflects on how these tensions shape democratic governance and what a more productive relationship between politicalleadership, expertise, and citizen participation might look like—both in Brazil and beyond.