Brazilian party system development in the post-Lula era: the evolution of state-level clans

• In Event: Party Systems in Latin America

Abstract

A disconnect between state-level teams of politicians and national political alliances characterized the chaotic first couple of decades of post-authoritarian Brazil's poorly institutionalized party system. Institutional and informal factors in the Cardoso and especially Lula eras helped to harmonize teams of politicians and the party system in the first decade of the 21st century coalesced in a noteworthy and tractable way, contributing positively to the consolidation of democracy in Brazil. But in the wake of the PT's attempt at a fourth straight term in the Planalto, how stable or fluid is the party system? This paper will examine this question by looking at continuities and discontinuities in the party affiliations of political "clans" in the states of Bahia, Goiás, Maranhão, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, and Santa Catarina. To what degree are the clans of the 1990s and 2000s (including formerly "junior" members now rising as heirs-apparent) maintaining party-affiliations? Are they shifting within ideological party-families, or even across them? Are such clans even continuing to hang together in their local arenas, or are national party networks creating more durable patterns of loyalties at the national level? How much have new parties like the PSD injected instability into the system? This paper will attempt to answer these questions and, in the wake of 2014 elections, assess the trajectory of Brazil's party system in terms of institutionalization or de-institutionalization.

Author

• Daniel J Epstein, Colgate University