A Guardian article argues that four pivotal elections in Brazil, Serbia, Israel and the United States inflicted setbacks on authoritarian leaders and renewed faith in democracy's resilience. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil's runoff with nearly 52% of the vote; Serbia's Student List of political amateurs won 140 of 250 seats, defeating Aleksandar Vučić's regime; Benjamin Netanyahu lost his Knesset majority; and Democrats swept the US congressional elections, which the article predicts will profoundly change the course of Donald Trump's final two years. It credits grassroots activism — a turnout surge in Brazil and two years of student protests in Serbia — while analysts like Miguel Lago and Dahlia Scheindlin weigh what the results mean.