Neoliberal think tanks in the Brazilian political scenario

This thesis examined the current size, scope, and organization of think tanks as well as what constitute the main neoliberal think tank networks in Brazil. Data were collected from 158 think tanks in the country. Results showed that most think tanks in Brazil are located in São Paulo (around ⅓), and Rio de Janeiro (around ¼ of the institutions). As for institution affiliation, most think tanks are unaffiliated (62%); some are university-affiliated (17.7%), government-affiliated institutions (13.9%); and political-party affiliated (5.7%). Furthermore, many organizations fall under the categorization of “think-and-do-tanks”—they do more than just think, actively influencing public policy and promoting advocacy. Examining the literature, I argue that there are two main challenges that Latin American think tanks face: the search for funding, and the difficulty to maintain academic rigor when they are also advocacy think tanks. Future work should examine how neoliberal think tank networks organize on the streets and online, cooperate, and have become important actors in Brazilian politics, especially after 2013, in order to understand the political and ideological changes in the country’s recent history and its political impact.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Latin American Studies

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Migotto Brandolt, Larissa

Contributors dc:contributor

• Sin, Gisela

• Think tanks
• Brazilian politics

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2022 Larissa Migotto Brandolt

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/116117

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F116117