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Former President of Brazil Visits Wilson Center

On December 6 Fernando Henrique Cardoso spoke to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Transitions from Authoritarian Rule Project at the Wilson Center.

In 1979, a team of researchers based at the Woodrow Wilson Center conceived and launched a project titled "Transitions from Authoritarian Rule." This group of highly distinguished scholars including Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Abraham Lowenthal, Alfred Stepan, Guillermo O'Donnell, Philippe Schmitter, and Laurence Whitehead designed the project to analyze and compare political transitions underway in Latin America and Europe during the 1980's. The resultant research, conferences, and four-volume book series was the origin of a conceptual debate and empirical research on regime change and democratic governance throughout the world. The series was translated into numerous languages and, for more than a decade, was the most cited work of social science published in English.

As part of the twenty-fifth anniversary of this project, the Latin American Program invited Fernando Henrique Cardoso – who served as President of Brazil from 1995 to 2003 – to speak about the initiative and the status of the democracies in the region.

For complete coverage please see Thinking Brazil Update #13Image removed.

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Brazil Institute

The Brazil Institute—the only country-specific policy institution focused on Brazil in Washington—works to foster understanding of Brazil’s complex reality and to support more consequential relations between Brazilian and US institutions in all sectors. The Brazil Institute plays this role by producing independent research and programs that bridge the gap between scholarship and policy, and by serving as a crossroads for leading policymakers, scholars and private sector representatives who are committed to addressing Brazil’s challenges and opportunities.  Read more

Latin America Program

The Wilson Center’s prestigious Latin America Program provides non-partisan expertise to a broad community of decision makers in the United States and Latin America on critical policy issues facing the Hemisphere. The Program provides insightful and actionable research for policymakers, private sector leaders, journalists, and public intellectuals in the United States and Latin America. To bridge the gap between scholarship and policy action, it fosters new inquiry, sponsors high-level public and private meetings among multiple stakeholders, and explores policy options to improve outcomes for citizens throughout the Americas. Drawing on the Wilson Center’s strength as the nation’s key non-partisan policy forum, the Program serves as a trusted source of analysis and a vital point of contact between the worlds of scholarship and action.  Read more