From left to right: Prof. Jessé de Souza, Prof. Patrícia Kauark, and Prof. Leonardo Avritzer.
Photo: Stella Ferreira Gontijo and Gabriel Avritzer – UFMG.

On Friday, December 5, 2025, at the UFMG Conservatory of Music, Professor Leonardo Avritzer, from the Department of Political Science at UFMG and coordinator of the “Darcy Ribeiro Chair: Sovereignty, Education and Politics,” launched his new book, published by Editora Autêntica, “The Coup Hit the Post: Democracy, Order and Disorder in Brazil”. At the same event, Professor Jessé Souza, sociologist and rector of the Instituto Conhecimento Liberta, launched his book “Why Did the Left Die? And What Should We Do to Resurrect It?”, published by Editora Civilização Brasileira. The launch was moderated by the director of IEAT/UFMG, Professor Patrícia Kauark, followed by a cocktail reception with a book signing.

In his book, Leonardo Avritzer explores the instability of Brazilian democracy, revisiting the democratic ideals that emerged with the Modern Art Week of 1922, and its instabilities, marked by ruptures and coup attempts from 1930 until January 8, 2023. He focuses his analysis on how Bolsonarism has exploited a series of anti-democratic elements since 2018, mainly through the mobilization of public opinion against the electoral process. In this way, he discusses how, despite the feeling of greater democratic stability since 1985, Bolsonarism has instilled a climate of disorder in the country by attacking Brazilian democracy. The book is divided into chapters that reflect on political theory, democracy and authoritarianism; Jair Bolsonaro and Brazil; the reasons for the survival of Brazilian democracy; and the new national and international disorder.

Jessé de Souza, on the other hand, addresses how the advance of capitalism has stifled the actions of the left and the Brazilian progressive field, which he perceives from the difficulty of social and popular movements in adapting to the dynamics of the new times. Therefore, despite the controversial title, in which he claims the death of the left, he seeks to trace the paths to its reorganization, pointing out the reasons for the current condition of this field in a new moment of capitalism, proposing a critical exercise of the current conjuncture. Jessé de Souza divides his book into chapters that address the context of the formation of the working class in the 19th and 20th centuries, relating this event to the concepts of democracy and the public sphere; the great revolution of the 20th century and financial capitalism; the colonization of the world of work, the public sphere, and the role of new social media; and the establishment of a new form of social domination.

We invite everyone to broaden their discussions and reflections based on these readings.

Autograph session.
Photo: Stella Ferreira Gontijo and Gabriel Avritzer – UFMG.