About Marsílea Gombata
Marsílea Gombata is a visiting scholar at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), professor of international relations at the Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (FAAP), and reporter at Valor Economico, the leading financial newspaper in Brazil. She researches at the Center for Research in International Relations (NUPRI) at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). She holds a BA in Social Communication (UERJ) and a master’s and PhD in Political Science (USP). In her postdoctoral research at the Institute of International Relations (IRI) at USP, she investigated under what circumstances polarization leads to democratic backsliding in Brazil, Chile, and Peru. Her current research agenda seeks to understand the linkages between political economy and democracy in Latin America.
About the presentation
What is the role of education and income in pernicious polarization and democratic backsliding processes? While many works focus on the relationship between social media and political polarization, this research aims to understand why well-educated people choose disruptive leaders who use polarization as a strategy, potentially leading to democratic backsliding. Equally intriguing is understanding why poorer voters, whose work and living conditions have been precarious, have voted for the far right, which advocates for pro-market policies and a reduced role for the State, calling into question the provision of rights such as education and health. Contrary to works that show evidence that higher quality education and less instruction inequalities have depolarizing effects, in the case of Brazil, Argentina, and Chile, education does not seem to prevent polarization, the rise of the far right, and democratic backsliding. On the other hand, income inequalities seem to play a different role from those seen in the last decades.
