Brazil Flashcards
Legislative Structure
Bicameral
Senate: 2 senators from each state and Federal District, 8-year term
Chamber of Deputies: state and Federal District representatives, 4-year term
Legislative Election
Senate: plurality vote
Chamber of Deputies: proportional vote
Executive Structure
President (4 yrs, 2 terms), vice president (4 yrs, 2 terms), cabinet
Executive Election
President and vice president are directly elected by universal suffrage, 2 rounds w/ runoff
Judicial Structure
Multi-level courts: Supreme Court, High Tribunal of Justice, regional courts, labor courts, electoral courts, military courts, and state courts
Financial and administrative autonomy
Mandatory retirement at 75
Judicial Election
Checks & Balances
Electoral System
142 electorate
80% average turnout
compulsory voting
- political party effort to educate citizens on the value of participation
- too many parties and hundreds of candidates in large electoral districts (so successful candidates don’t have the majority win, scattered support) cause low accountability
- politicians change their state of residence to increase their chances of winning
- fragments power because state parties select legislative candidates (governors have a lot of influence in nominations)
Abertura
- political parties gained access to stream electoral propaganda on radio and television
- during campaign season radio and television programs have to carry two hours of party programming each day at no charge
Parties are given proportional air time as votes from previous election (but can gain more access through private channels and community radio if connected)
Party System
- Multiparty (right, center-right, center-left, left)
- Open-list proportional representation
New parties must be registered under the Superior Electoral Court after acquiring sufficient signatures and reaching a minimal threshold in at least nine states - no clear left-right ideology amongst Brazilians (don’t identify w/ a political party either
- switched parties at will to gain patronage (not allowed to switch during term as of 2007)
Conservative/Right-Wing Parties
PFL/DEM: Party of the Liberal Front, Democrats (lead, larger congressional party)
PL/PR: Liberal Party, Party of the Republic
PP: Progressive Party
PTB: Brazilian Labor Party
PSC: Social Christian Party (hard-right)
Centrist Parties
largest parties in congress
PMDB: Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement
PSDB: Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (
Populist/Leftist Parties
PT: Workers’ Party (most successful)
PSB: Brazilian Socialist Party
PCdoB: Communist Party of Brazil
PDT: Democratic Labor Party
PPS: Popular Socialist Party
Right Party Ideologies
neoliberal economic policies designed to shrink the size of the public sector
supports reducing/partially privatization of the welfare state
in favor of rolling back social spending
advocate for a majority/mixed proportional district voting system
Centrist Party Ideologies
in favor of neoliberal reform
