The big democracy where lawmakers are mightier than the executive

In the past decade, democracies around the world have been bent to the will of would-be autocrats. From the United States to Turkey and India, strongmen have accumulated power in the executive branch of government, and weakened the institutions that could check them, legislatures in particular.The big democracy where lawmakers are mightier than the executive (Unsplash)Frustrated lawmakers elsewhere, therefore, might envy their peers in Brazil, where this trend is running in reverse: in the past decade Brazil’s executive branch has lost clout to the courts, and especially to Congress. The balance of power has become so distorted that Brazilian lawmakers no longer seem to care who is elected president in the general election in October. Some reckon that whoever wins may be forced to capitula