Political Reform and Fragmentation in the Brazilian Congress

• In Event: Electoral Rule Reforms and Mistakes

Abstract

There is extensive literature on the effects of electoral rules on Congressional party configurations and election results. However, there seems to be a lack of studies on the importance of party rules and congressional rules on party configurations. Elections in Brazil seemed to be doing well in the current democratic period, which began in 1985. Nevertheless, corruption and campaigns awash with illegal money have sent the country into its worst crisis of governability since 1985. This has even called into question the “Coalition Presidential System” model, once praised for its ability to manage the most fragmented party system in the world. Increasing public funding for parties proportional to the lower house seats filled by an OLPR system and court rulings fostered the creation of seven new congressional parties in the last two congresses alone. After the Supreme Court banned campaign financing by corporations in 2015, public funding became even more important. The 55th Congress’ Political Reform focused on reducing the number of parties entitled to the fund (introducing a threshold and banning electoral coalitions) and increasing public campaign financing by adding a new public party fund exclusively for campaigns. Sixty-three percent of the new fund distributions are proportional to party seats in Congress, 15 percent in the Senate (where members are elected in a plurality system). The 2018 polls materialized the most fragmented Congress (EffNs 16.46 in the Chamber of Deputies and 14.16 in the Senate). The present paper assesses the effects of electoral, party and congressional rules on congressional party configuration. To do so it takes advantage of the unprecedented opportunity to compare the effects of similar incentives in legislatures using two different electoral systems.

Author

• Ana Lucia Henrique Teixeira Gomes, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies