Political Behavior in Young Democracies: The Case of Contemporary Brazil

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Brazil is Latin America’s largest democracy. Around 150 million voters participate in elections in the country every election day. Despite economic and social development in the last decades, the young Brazilian democracy is still being characterized by personalism, political corruption, and clientelism. This panel brings together four papers by specialists on patterns of political engagement and voting behavior in Brazilian politics. All of them tackle contemporary discussions relying on solid theoretical background and modern techniques for political research and social inquiry.

The first paper examines how vote buying interacts with candidates' characteristics to shape voting intentions. The second studies how a candidate's promise to provide public services to a given constituency affects voting intentions depending on campaign strategies, the support of grassroots organizations, and candidates’ characteristics. The third analyzes how a programmatic policy (i.e., basic income) affects voters’ predisposition to participate in elections. The fourth examines how the effect of an exogenous economic shock on voting behavior varies depending on the extent to which voters rely on public services for insurance.

Overall, the research to be presented in this panel confirms that a combination of candidates' personal qualities, performance in office, and clientelism are key to understand political behavior in Brazil. However, it also reveals under what conditions each one of these four factors is relevant. Moreover, the panel underscores whether and how programmatic policies with direct effects on individuals’ well-being can undermine electoral clientelism while strengthening the quality of representation and electoral accountability.

Sub Unit

• Division 36: Elections and Voting Behavior

Individual Presentations

• The Gendered and Racialized Dynamics of Vote Buying - Malu A. C. Gatto, University College London; Mariana Borges Martins da Silva, Oxford University

• Community Organizing and Local Political Behavior in Brazil - Alicia Dailey Cooperman, George Washington University

• Does Receiving a Basic Income Encourage Citizens To Turn Out To Vote? - Victor Araújo, University of Zurich (UZH)

• Export Shocks, Insurance Schemes and Political Behavior in Brazil - Paula Rettl, Bocconi University

Chair

• Paula Rettl Bocconi University

Discussants

• Nara Pavão UFPE

• Anderson Frey University of Rochester