Os desafios contemporâneos para a democratização em países em desenvolvimento: a classe média autoritária

Abstract

For the main theories on democratization (modernizing and redistributive), the middle class plays a central role. On the one hand, it is considered a modernizing and liberal actor, on the other, it is seen as the force that facilitates the mobilization of other classes in favor of democracy. However, in recent decades, we have observed countries where the rise of the middle class has not translated into democratization, a phenomenon that poses new challenges for democracy analysts and political scientists in general. The most recent work by political scientist Bryn Rosenfeld, "The Autocratic Middle Class: how state dependency reduces the demand for democracy" (2021, 296 pages, still without translation into Portuguese), is one of the first dedicated to seeking to understand why the new class The average autocratic developing country has not become a democratizing actor. Our intention in this essay is to present this recent and innovative research to the Brazilian academic audience, with a focus on the author's methodological approach.