Sérgio Praça (São Paulo, 1981) is a political scientist and journalist. He earned his PhD (2010) and MA (2005) in Political Science from the University of São Paulo (USP), holds a BA in Journalism from Faculdade Cásper Líbero (2002), and completed a FAPESP‑funded postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Politics and Economics of the Public Sector (CEPESP‑FGV) between 2010 and 2012. He taught and carried out research at the Federal University of ABC (2012–2015) and, subsequently, at the School of Social Sciences of the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV CPDOC) from 2015 to 2024.

His research focuses on corruption and oversight institutions, partisan appointments in Brazil’s federal bureaucracy, the budgetary process, and the historical development of political institutions. His work appears in journals such as Governance, Latin American Politics and Society, Journal of Politics in Latin America, Latin American Research Review, Opinião Pública, Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, and Novos Estudos Cebrap. He is the author of Corrupção e Reforma Orçamentária no Brasil, 1987‑2008 (Annablume, 2013) and Guerra à Corrupção: Lições da Lava Jato (Évora, 2017).

Outside academia, Sérgio contributes a regular column to PlatôBR and has written for Veja, Época Negócios, and Exame, offering analysis on Brazil’s political and institutional dynamics. He has consulted for organizations such as Transparency International, Varieties of Democracy, Fundação Lemann, Movimento Voto Consciente, Movimento Pessoas à Frente, and the Ministry of Education (in a UNESCO‑supported project). He has also held research fellowships from Brazil’s National School of Public Administration (ENAP) and the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea).