Gustavo Venturelli

Contact: venturellig(at)ceu.edu

Post-doctoral Researcher, CEU Democracy Institute

Gustavo Venturelli is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Central European University Democracy Institute, working at the Global Forum on the Democracy and Development project at the Populism, Ideology, and Discourse in the Global South Hub. His research focuses on populism and democratic backsliding in Latin America, exploring the causes, nature, and consequences of populism through public opinion surveys, political speeches, election manifestos, social media, and assessments of democratic levels. In addition to his core research, Gustavo is actively involved in collaborations on polarization, electoral distrust, partisanship, political parties, and legislative studies. Before joining CEU, Gustavo was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at Skidmore College and a Lecturer at Yeshiva University. He earned his PhD from the University of São Paulo.

Latin America at Crossroads: Populism’s Impact on Democracy

Does populism undermine democracy? This research project uses data from Team Populism, V- Dem, and World Bank to address whether the rise of Latin American populist leaders to power is the cause of democratic backsliding in their countries. I apply causal inference methods to assess if the lack of electoral success of populist leaders would have changed the fate of their nations. By comparing actual cases with their counterfactuals, I can isolate alternative answers to measure the weight of populist success on democratic erosion. In doing so, the research contributes to one of the main topics in the field: the relationship between populism and democracy. It overcomes normative debates to address the dilemma empirically, showing that even though it is not necessarily an inherently negative relation, such an approach reveals that populism is, in most cases, harmful to democracy.