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Lentes teóricas dos estudos sobre o sistema de representação política brasileiro
Abstract
De cunho teórico e analítico, a presente obra tem como objetivo fortalecer a reflexão sobre a Ciência Política praticada no Brasil e sobre o Brasil como caso concreto. Seu amplo escopo reflete o engajamento das diferentes áreas ou subdisciplinas da Ciência Política nacional. O eixo principal do livro, comum a todos os capítulos, se baseia no levantamento das principais teorias (em perspectiva comparada) que têm sido mobilizadas para compreender o caso brasileiro, acompanhado de reflexões e análises sobre como as características específicas do nosso contexto incidem ao mesmo tempo na utilização, aplicabilidade e limitações dessas teorias. Dessa forma, o livro serve ao duplo propósito de realizar um levantamento dos principais argumentos usados pelos pesquisadores nacionais, oferecendo ao leitor um estado da arte da pesquisa em Ciência Política, e mapear as principais características do Brasil como caso concreto e como essas características importam para a avaliação das teorias produzidas aqui e no exterior.
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O debate recente sobre identificação partidária e comportamento eleitoral no Brasil vem apontando para a crescente importância do posicionamento dos eleitores com respeito aos principais partidos presidenciais – PT e PSDB – na escolha dos candidatos à presidência. Neste artigo, procura-se contribuir para a literatura colocando em questionamento diagnósticos recentes com respeito à polarização do sistema partidário presidencial. De acordo com a hipótese da polarização, a competição eleitoral entre PT e PSDB levou a uma crescente divisão do eleitorado em dois blocos claramente
diferenciados e polarizados. Argumentamos que esta hipótese se apoia em bases teóricas e empíricas frágeis. Não obstante a crescente importância dos sentimentos partidários na determinação do comportamento dos eleitores no pleito presidencial, os resultados das análises descritivas e modelos estatísticos multivariados com base nos surveys do Estudo Eleitoral Brasileiro (Eseb) realizados nos anos de 2002, 2006, 2010 e 2014 demonstram que não há evidências de que tal movimento estaria associado a um aumento da polarização partidária de massa. Pelo contrário, observamos que as
diferenças ideológicas e de opinião entre petistas e tucanos são de pequena monta e, além disso, encontramos evidências de uma crescente convergência ideológica entre os vários segmentos do eleitorado ao longo do tempo.
In this article we analyze the impact of party identification on electoral behavior in Brazil. We use the data from the ESEB conducted in 2014 with a representative sample of voters nationwide. In relation to other works on the impact of identification on vote we innovate two aspects. First, we do not limit ourselves to the analysis of the vote for president, but we include the vote for all positions in dispute in 2014. Second, we show that party identification does not work in the same way on all voters identified with the same party. We have shown that supporters of the PT are more coherent in their vote for President when they have a higher level of education, while supporters of the PSDB are more faithful in the same issue when they have low education. In the same way, petistas are faithful when it comes to voting for the President, while the peessedebistas vote with their party when it comes to choosing Governors and Senators. Finally, our analysis has identified a complex pattern of relationship between education, here taken as a proxy for the cognitive resources of the voter, party identification, and voting decision. This last contribution open a new discussion on the significance of party identification in Brazil that goes well beyond the usual issues of its presence and relevance for understanding the vote decision, which have been the dominant approaches in the literature that deals with this topic in Brazil.
We discuss two different traditions of studying party membership and party identification in political science. We then apply these concepts exploring the data of the ESEB 2014 (Election Survey for Brazil). First we describe the data on party membership and party identification, exploring different social cleavages in Brazil. Then we test to what extent party membership and party identification help explain political attitudes and behavior of citizen in Brazil. Three different types of party membership emerge from this analysis: members without emotional bond to any party; those identifying emotionally with their party (50%); and a third group holding membership but feeling closer to a different party. These results demand future research into the meaning of party membership in Brazil. Party identification in Brazil should not be overlooked. It is a concept that allows predicting party membership and different forms or political activism. It also moderately explains political participation in elections. We conclude that party membership and party identification, which have not earned much attention in the study of Brazilian politics, are useful concepts showing internal consistency and structuring political attitudes of citizen and help explain their behavior. Both phenomena deserve attention in future research.
Em Londres, casas de apostas aceitam palpites para qualquer evento. Se, em 1988, alguém tivesse apostado que brasi-leiros elegeriam pacificamente seu presidente por sete vezes con-secutivas, hoje, este cidadão estaria com toda certeza milionário. Se tivesse tido a ousadia de supor que o PT não apenas venceria como também tomaria posse sem contestações dos militares, o nosso hipotético apostador figuraria na lista da Forbes. O prêmio pago seria maior que o recebido pelo Dudu da Loteca. A atual democracia brasileira nasceu sob um clima de forte desconfiança. Para a maior parte dos analistas, as chances de que a transição desembocasse em uma democracia consolidada eram mínimas. Este era o tom geral das predições acadêmicas. Não iria dar certo. Eleições presidenciais eram uma das razões centrais para tamanho pessimismo. Diante do despreparo do eleitor, de suas carências materiais e cognitivas, dava-se como inevitável que estas fossem marcadas pela combinação de alta instabilidade e polari-zação. A eleição de 1989 não fez outra coisa senão reforçar esses cenários sombrios, confirmando o que todos temiam: a combina-ção entre populismo e radicalização. Essas crenças se mostraram infundadas. A eleição de 1989 não estabeleceu um padrão, discrepando de todas as seguintes. Desde [*] O texto já havia sido concluído quan do Eduardo Campos faleceu. Man ti vemos o texto original e acrescentamos um pósescrito ao final.
Neste artigo mostramos que as mudanças na base de apoio a Lula, que se tornam mais
evidentes nas eleições de 2006, são mais bem explicadas por variáveis políticas. Para
isso recorremos a uma base de dados original, agregada por seção eleitoral, e
estendemos a análise incluindo outros partidos e as eleições que precederam aquele
pleito. Por um lado, uma explicação do que houve em 2006 precisa dar conta do que
ocorreu em 2002, quando o PT chega à presidência. Por outro lado, dado o caráter
composicional do voto, a razão do que ocorre com os votos do PT deve explicar o que
acontece com os votos de seus adversários. Observamos que o sucesso do PT e a
ampliação de sua base a partir de 2006 acontecem após a implosão do PSDB em 2002 e a
ausência de adversários competitivos. As explicações que associam o novo padrão de
voto em Lula com sua chegada ao poder não dão conta dessas dinâmicas. Sugerimos que
um melhor esclarecimento deve privilegiar as estratégias de coordenação pré-eleitoral
adotadas pelos partidos.
Este artigo procura analisar a profissionalização política e seus efeitos em quatro partidos brasileiros - o Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), o Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB), o Partido da Social-Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) e os Democratas (DEM), tendo como objeto os candidatos a deputado federal por essas legendas nas eleições de 2010. A pesquisa baseia-se em survey aplicado a 120 candidatos a deputado federal. A partir de uma definição conceitual foi construído o índice de profissionalização política. Como resultados, constata-se menos "profissionais da política" e mais "políticos ocasionais" dentre os candidatos dos quatro partidos em 2010. A tendência é mais acentuada entre os candidatos de centrodireita. Políticos profissionais e políticos ocasionais têm leituras distintas sobre que aspectos mais importam na hora de definir a composição da lista e as chances de vitória eleitoral.
We know almost nothing about the national leaderships of the Brazilian political parties, spaces for disputes and deliberations on relevant aspects of national political life. The aim here is to begin to open the black box of these spaces, outlining a profile of the Brazilian party elites. Unpublished data on the national executive committees formed between 1980 and 2013 are used, of the seven major parties: PT, PSB, PDT, PMDB, PSDB, DEM and PP. The data on executive committees were obtained from the TSE, DHBB (FGV) and the parties themselves. Besides pointing out the differences between the parties with respect to the weight of the ‘party in public office’ in the committees (elected representatives and political appointees), we assessed the statistical explanatory power of some variables to understanding the patterns and differences observed: ideology and party origin, its electoral strength, and participation in the federal government. Going beyond the numbers, are presented some names of leaders who stand out in party committees, stressing that the decision-making core of the machines (general secretary, finance etc.) may have a slightly different face compared to the committees as a whole. An integrated explanatory model was able to explain most of the observed variability, suggesting the party origin (internal or not to the parliament) as the main predictor. Parties with internal origin (which are the center and right-wing parties) tend to have more parliamentarized committees, while those with no internal origin (the left-wing parties) have fewer MPs; the PT national committees have more leaders with no records of public office. The results reinforce the relevance of the party genetic model, and contest one of the most entrenched assumptions in the literature: that central bodies of Brazilian parties are monolithically controlled by federal deputies and senators. It is more appropriate to talk in party elites than in one united elite. Behind the constant presence of representatives and political appointees in the national committees is the pursuit of cohesion and coordination between different elements of the party organism, both horizontally (national leadership, federal representatives and federal government) as in the vertical-federal vector (national leadership and subnational governments, representatives and party branches).
Candidate selection in Brazil was poorly treated in regarding the perception candidates have of the entire process. Thereby, the purpose of this article is to analyse decision making process of choosing candidates in the four greatests Brazilian parties, DEM, PMDB, PSDB and PT. From this analisys, stablish empirical criteria for the internal democracy measure within political parties. In order to, we applied a survey to 120 federal deputies candidates in the 2010 election. The framework for analisys was the proposed by Freidenberg (2003) for the definition and measure of internal democracy and Hazan e Rahat (2010) for the candidate selection process. The hypothesis stands for more inclusive selections and done by vote, produces more democratic parties. The results points out that political parties with middle strata´s organizational participation, as delegates, and mobilize the vote for the decision making process, not always presents better representative index. In the other hand, political parties selects thier candidates em very different way, independent from institutional constraint. Thesse differences ocurred essentialy regards the inclusiviness and the nomination shape. This points out that the electoral system isn't the exclusive determinant of the party behavior.
The aim of this article is to fill some gaps in research on the Brazilian electoral arena. The current literature, by neglecting the study of party organization, ends up overlooking fundamental questions for understanding how the electoral process works. This study addressed two questions: How do Brazilian parties work? What is the impact of party organization on a party's decision to launch or withhold a candidate in a given election? We intend to show that the parties have more life than many studies on our political system tend to show. This partisan life helps understand one of the central aspects of the electoral arena, that is, how pre-election coordination occurs.
This paper analises the determinants of vote for Dilma Rousseff in the first and second rounds of the 2010 Brazilian presidential elections, based on various political, economic and social indicators. The study tests the traditional hypotheses about vote choice in Brazil, such as sociotropic economic voting, party identification, government evaluation, perceptions of corruption and religion. Our contribution comes from the adition of a new explanation for vote choice: perceptions of social mobility. Therefore, the present study captures a political effect of the upward social mobility of sectors of the Brazilian population, the so called "new middle class". The article uses data from the CSES Brazilian Electoral Study (ESEB).
For decades the conventional wisdom in Brazil has been that political parties do not matter in explaining the behavior of Brazilian voters. However, this scenario of low partisan identification contrasts with the observation that, at least for presidential elections, electoral competition has been structured around two party organizations: those of the PT and PSDB. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that, even if parties are in fact not internalized in terms of party identification, we are witnessing an important division between two principal political organizations in terms of party preference, reflecting the emergence of a bipartisan system at the national level. On the basis of responses of interviewees about the presidential elections in the CSES-ESEB of 2002, 2006, and 2010, we see that in these elections the electoral affinities for the PT and PSDB are some of the principle components of an explanation of the vote. This article also emphasizes that despite the fact that party preference is more pronounced as a means of candidate selection for those with a high degree of education, it is possible to observe that even among those with less education this variable is fundamental to explain the vote, providing evidence that even for voters with less knowledge of politics, the parties are helping to structure the voting decision.
This paper investigates the relationship between the impact of Bolsa Família Program in the Brazilian population and the result of the presidential elections of 2006. The database involves municipal information provided by MDS, IBGE and TSE. To control the experiment, the eventual influences of other variables in the determination of this relationship had been studied. All those variables come from specific characteristics of the cities, such as: city with predominant urban or not urban population; size of the city population; among others. The results state that the Bolsa Família was, in fact, a very important factor in the determination of the votes in Lula. It was, in itself, responsible by 45% of the total votes in Lula.
This article suggests a few hypotheses to understand the new electoral configuration that was formed in 2006. The subproletariat, that has always kept itself away from Lula, accepted in large scale his candidature after the first term of his presidency, at the same time that the middle-class moved away from it. The explanation would be on a new ideological configuration, that mixes leftwing and rightwing elements. The rhetoric and the praxis, that are able to unite the maintenance of stability and the distributive action of the state, are in the origins of the formation of lulism.
This study analyzes the party preferences of Brazilian voters from 1989 to 2002 and some data on party rejection, relating these manifestations to voters decisions. There is a non-negligible share of voters who vote according to their party preferences, as well as a significant contingent of voters who express rejection of some party and do not vote for any of its candidates. The conclusions point to the need to reformulate the way Brazilian voters party inclinations are measured, including party rejection as a component of this measurement.
The debate about the distancing between Lula and the Workers Party (PT) gained acceptance in the 2006 election, when the popularity of Lula and his government did not extend to the PT, as expected. For the first time the party did not improve performance in the voting for the Chamber of Deputies regarding the previous election. We analyzed the electoral bases of Lula and the PT in the last four elections for president and federal deputies (1994-2006), and we prove the distancing between them. We studied the spatial distribution of votes at the municipal level with maps, statistics and spatial regression. We identified the detachment of the candidate's and party's electoral territories every election, and the regressions measured the growing spatial-temporal independence of the votings: the coefficient fell from 0.85 in 1994 to 0.15 in 2006. There was a process of geossocial distancing in the period 1994 to 2002, and a "divorce" between the electoral bases in 2006 when the territories seemed to be nearly unrelated to each other.
The article analyzes the current Brazilian party system under the conceptual lens of Katz and Mairs cartel party theory (1995, 2009), using some of its indicators, but without trying a systematic and comprehensive test of the thesis. Three sets of indicators are explored: a) the party linkages with society and state; b) competition and collusion among the major parties; c) organization and internal decision-making structure. The conclusions discuss the efficacy of cartelization model to understand the patterns and changes of the Brazilian political system, and point out the empirical difficulties and the theoretical and conceptual inconsistencies of the model, proposing a theoretical reelaboration which restricts it to its essential core.
O artigo busca caracterizar o eleitor de Lula em 2006. O objetivo é analisar os fatores que diferenciam o voto em Lula do voto no PT, de modo a esclarecer quem são os eleitores que compõem a maioria que Lula construiu ao longo de seu governo e que não demonstra preferência por seu partido. Conclui-se que o lulista se assemelha ao eleitor não-alinhado que não demonstra preferências políticas ou ideológicas fortes e que vota, até certo ponto, baseado na sua avaliação retrospectiva do desempenho do governo.
The 2002 elections were a watershed in Brazilian electoral history. Three aspects of the process in particular have been amply stressed in several analyses. The first is the symbolic dimension of Lula's personal victory, the biography of a man of the people who rises to the country's most important office. The second is the victory of PT, the main leftwing party in the country, winning federal office 22 years after being founded. The third is the dimension of the victory, with the presi-dent obtaining a resounding vote (61% of the valid votes), which surpassed that of any other Brazilian president since 1945. Despite this, the efforts made by po-litical science to analyse the 2002 elections remain limited, in particular regarding the use of opinion poll results. T his research note does not intend to carry out a thorough and detailed analysis of the choice of candidates or of the key events in the campaign. The aim is to investigate the variables that may be associated with the voting decision in the 2002 presi-dential elections. To this end, the results of the election survey conducted by Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas (Iuperj)-2002 and the technique of logistic regression will be used. The latter is widely used for election studies in other countries, but little used in Brazil to date. Therefore, as well as providing a substantial analysis of the data, this re-search note suggests a methodological option for future studies on Brazilian elections. Few works have attempted to explain the determinants of the vote in the Brazilian presidential elections on the basis of micro-data. Two works stand out for covering more than one election (Singer 2000; Carreirão 2002). Singer (2000) analysed the results of surveys carried out nationwide in 1989 and in the state of São Paulo in 1994. One of the book's purposes is to show the association between ideology, measured as voters'
The paper examines the function of the major Brazilian political parties in the selection process of candidates to the Chamber of Deputies. The authors argue that there is a relationship between the structure of party organizations and the control of political-party representation in Brazil, expressed in this article in the selection of candidates. They conclude that there are differences between the profiles of the candidates selected by their parties, which are related to differences in their recruitment procedures. However, such differences are reduced after the electoral process. The differences expressed in the profiles of the candidates selected by the parties do not remain after the elections, when there is a trend to a more uniform standard among the candidates elected.
This article focuses on the political opinions of the Brazilian voters who express partisan feelings. The main goal is to verify if there is a structure in the political opinion of these voters which manifest partisan feelings and if there is variation along time as regards these opinions. The analysis is carried out based on four national surveys applied in different moments: 1990, 1997, 2002 and 2007. The analysis reveals that the opinions of the voters who express feelings for different parties were more differentiated at the beginning of the period established for the present study than at the end of this same period. This seems to be the reflect, in part, of the signals issued by the parties which hold smaller differentiation between each other at the end of the period.
This paper aims to investigate one of the main roles of political parties in a representative democracy: to organize and to control the production of representation. In order to do that, two internal party processes will be examined: the setting and maintaining of the party's organizational structure and the candidate selection for the Camara dos Deputados in the state of Sao Paulo for the PFL, PP, PMDB, PSDB and PT parties. The analysis is based on the idea that the more control political parties have over these two processes, the more vital are their party organizations in the representative dynamics.
The article shows the impact of corruption scandals on the Brazilian voters choice in the 2006 Presidential election and it analyses if those individuals who have considered corruption the main Brazilian problem also did not vote for Lula. The article evaluates if and how the retrospective, ideological and partisan elements have influence on voting, as well as the circumstantial phenomena. Data shows that perceptions about corruption have more impact on the choice for candidates of political parties ideologically neighbors and have less impact on the choice for candidates of ideologically distant political parties. Therefore, the voters perceptions about economy, the Lulas government performance and some partisan aspect were more important for the choice for President and have protected the candidate from the corruptions accusations.
Candidate selection is a key element in the link between electoral systems and political parties. Selection is necessary for candidates to access elective political office, where Brazilian women are still underrepresented. This article examines Brazilian women's presence in electoral contests, constructing a model to explain the preliminary candidate selection process, one of the parties' main roles. The article then outlines the steps for accessing office, from voter to party member to candidate, focusing on candidacies in the 1998 and 2002 Brazilian elections and the evolution in women's candidacies since 1946.
Comparative studies of party organization often use party rules and constitutions as a source of data indicating the ideological position of parties, how they are structured and how they function. Although the use of party constitutions in empirical investigations is commonplace, there is almost no systematic analysis of constitutions as discrete documents. There is little enquiry as to why party constitutions exist and little thought about their relationship to political practice. Rather than assuming that constitutions paint an accurate picture of party organization, we argue that party constitutions need to be understood as a response to a series of internal and external challenges: satisfying legal requirements; pronouncing ideological principles; gaining legitimacy for party decisions; managing internal conflict; and responding to external competition. The comparative analysis of constitutions indicates which of these challenges is more or less important to specific parties. Examining the constitutions of 16 parties registered in New South Wales, Australia in 2005-06, we catalogue the range of ways in which parties respond to these various challenges and develop a comparative framework for analysing the responses. What are the key elements of constitutional diversity among parties? Does this diversity reflect differing party types (for example, major versus minor parties), the interests of party founders, the age of parties, their size and whether or not they have achieved representation in Parliament? In assessing these questions, the article explores the ways in which constitutions can be read as products of institutional and environmental imperatives.
The article verifies in what measure Brazilian parties have been important political tools for the formation of voting preferences. The data from ESEB2002 and ESEB2006 allow to analyse how voters evaluate parties as organizations, the links between parties and voters, and the role of socioeconomic and demographic variables in the explanation of the impact of parties in the formation of political preferences. The results show the negative evaluation of the parties in 2002 and 2006, and that in 2006 the political cleavage between government and opposition did not distinguish parties in the electoral process.
The article analyses the changes and continuities related to the party identification and the party evaluation of the main four Brazilian parties: PT, PMDB,PSDB and PFL/DEM in 2002 and 2006. Data show a reduction in the party identification and the Worker's Party as the one with the main reduction, although none of the other 3 parties have benefited of the reduction. The PMDB and the PT show the most significant changes in the voter's social and demographic characteristics between elections. Finally, the analysis shows that the positive evaluation of the current government and the positive evaluation of the government party are variables strongly associated to the party evaluation.
This book looks at how the evidence of change and stability in modern political parties and party systems is interpreted. The emphasis is on western European political parties. The primary focus of the book is on processes of political adaptation and control, but it also concerns how parties and party systems generate their own momentum and ‘freeze’ themselves into place. Amidst the widespread contemporary discussion of the challenge to modern democracy and the crisis for traditional forms of political representation, it offers an emphasis on how party systems survive, and on how change, when it does occur, may be analysed and understood. The book has four parts, and the constituent chapters are from various essays reflecting work that has been carried out since the late 1980s. Part I contains an introductory chapter on the freezing of party systems. Part II has three chapters that deal with questions of persistence and change, and with the vulnerability and endurance of traditional parties. Part III has two chapters in which attention shifts to the question of party organization, and to the ways in which the established parties are increasingly coming to invade the state, finding there a new source of privilege and a new means of ensuring their own survival. Part IV has three chapters that focus on structures of competition in western party systems, as well as on the problems associated with the consolidation of the new party systems in post-communist Europe.
Cambridge Core - Political Economy - Partisans, Antipartisans, and Nonpartisans - by David J. Samuels
In this compelling book Pippa Norris and Joni Lovenduski provide the first full account of legislative recruitment in Britain for twenty-five years. Their central concern is how and why some politicians succeed in moving into the highest offices of state, while others fail. The book examines the relative dearth of women, black and working-class Members of Parliament, and whether the evident social bias in the British political élite matters for political representation. Legislative recruitment concerns the critical step from lower levels (activists, local counsellors) to a parliamentary career. The authors draw evidence from the first systematic surveys of parliamentary candidates, Members of Parliament and party selectors, as well as detailed personal interviews. The study explores how and why people become politicians, and the consequences for parties, legislatures and representative government.
In August 2015, there were over 15 million party members in Brazil, aggregating nearly 11% of the electorate, which places the Brazilian democracy among the most significant in this aspect. It is surprising that millions of individuals integrate organizations that are pointed out by part of the literature as weak, deprived of internal life and without strong linkages with civil society. Regardless of the diagnosis, factors such as the fluidity of the party system, the relative ideological undifferentiation among most parties, and the distrust of much of the population in relation to political institutions do not avoid many Brazilians from joining a political party. The first survey in the country which interviewed directly (and exclusively) members of political parties was carried out in 2013 in the state of Sao Paulo, covering the members of the ten major Brazilian parties. Using these unpublished data, this paper explores two main points: 1) the reasons and paths that lead individuals to join a political party; 2) the activities performed within the party and the perceptions of members about this participation. The text presents some preliminary findings and data of this research, which is funded by the State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Research Project n. 2012/19330-8).
Can too much participation harm democracy? Democratic theory places great importance upon the conduct of elections, but it is not often recognized that the electoral game takes place in two arenas, not only between parties but also within them. This pioneering book presents a new approach to understanding political parties. It sheds light on the inner dynamics of party politics and offers the first comprehensive analysis of one of the most important processes any party undertakes - its process of candidate selection. Candidate selection methods are the mechanisms by which a party chooses its candidates for the general elections. It may be the function that separates parties from other organizations. For such an important function, this field has certainly faced a dearth of serious investigation. Hazan and Rahat, the leading scholars on this topic, conduct an in-depth analysis of the consequences of different candidate selection methods on democracy. This book is a culmination of almost two decades of research and defines the field of candidate selection. Part I of the book delineates candidate selection methods based on four major dimensions: candidacy, the selectorate, decentralization, and voting versus appointment systems. Part II analyzes the political consequences of using different candidate selection methods according to four important aspects of democracy: participation, representation, competition, and responsiveness. The book ends with a proposed candidate selection method that optimally balances all four of the democratic aspects concurrently, and answers the question "Is the most participatory candidate selection method necessarily the best one for democracy?."
This now-classic examination of the development of viable political institutions in emerging nations is a major and enduring contribution to modern political analysis. In a new Foreword, Francis Fukuyama assesses Huntington's achievement, examining the context of the book's original publication as well as its lasting importance. "This pioneering volume, examining as it does the relation between development and stability, is an interesting and exciting addition to the literature."-American Political Science Review. "'Must' reading for all those interested in comparative politics or in the study of development."-Dankwart A. Rustow, Journal of International Affairs.
Analyses of formal governmental institutions and electoral laws have considerably advanced our understanding of how politics works in Latin America. However, these analyses largely overlook the process of candidate recruitment and selection, an issue intricately tied to political outcomes and the functioning of democracy.
In this volume, a team of experts uses a common analytic framework developed by the editors to analyze the recruitment and selection of executive and legislative candidates in six major countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay. It does so from two perspectives. First, as a dependent variable, the volume explores the party and legal factors that drive the recruitment and selection process, thus producing particular types of candidates. It then considers candidate type as an independent variable, analyzing the impact of candidate type on campaigns, political parties, and the behavior of legislators and presidents once elected. The result is the first fully comparative inquiry into a central, but largely neglected, determinant of politics in Latin America.
This article examines the impact of party policies on the Brazilian electorate. An important indicator of the consolidation of the party system is the conception of image and party binding among voters. As the party system tends to stabilize, we suppose that voters start fixing the profiles of parties and express party preference or loyalty. It meant that electoral volatility, high in the beginning, would tend to decrease along the time and that, the main parties at least, would constitute their identity, working as "shortcuts" to obtain information on the various different candidacies and for the electoral decision. The main preoccupation of this analysis is to verify at what level such knowledge and party identity construction process have occurred in Brazil, taking as empirical basis a research conducted in the São Paulo city metro area during the pre-electoral period on 2002.
A prominent question in comparative electoral studies concerns the so-called personal vote. Typically, scholars approach this question at a cross-national as opposed to a cross-party level. In this article, in contrast, the author focuses on the characteristics of parties, as opposed to the characteristics of electoral systems, as determinants of candidates' personal vote seeking. The author argues that a candidate's adoption of an individualistic or collective strategy depends largely on centralized or decentralized nomination control in his party, his party's alliance options, and his access to and control over funding and patronage. The author explores the Brazilian case, testing his claims at the national and district level using multiple regression analysis. Furthermore, he explains how one party, the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers' Party, PT), has overcome the incentives of the electoral system.
This paper develops a theory of candidate strategy from social-choice principles and from the workings of open-list proportional representation. The theory is used to explain the campaign behavior and the spatial patterns of vote distribution for candidates to the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Campaign strategy is evaluated with models that predict where deputies will offer budget amendments to benefit target municipalities whose votes they seek in subsequent elections. The choice of target municipalities is a function of the cost of erecting barriers to entry, the dominance of the deputy in the municipality, the spatial concentration of the deputy's statewide vote, the vulnerability of the municipality to invasion by outsiders, the weakness of the deputy in the last election, and the deputy's prior political career. Logistic regression of amendments to the Brazilian national budget in 1989 and 1990 and OLS regression of municipal-level electoral results for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in the 1990 elections. Deputies seek secure bailiwicks, search for vulnerable municipalities, and strive to overcome their own electoral weakness by delivering pork. Candidates' tactics vary, partly because political backgrounds differ and partly because the differing demographic and economic contexts of Brazilian states reward some tactics and penalize others. Candidate behavior hinders voter control over deputies, increases incentives for pork seeking, and weakens party programs and discipline.