What courses of action would allow a talented legislator in the current Brazilian institutional arrangement, with intense preferences in any area of foreign policy, to identify avenues for increasing their participation in decision-making in that issue area? This article centres on decision-making regarding Brazilian foreign policy, dividing it analytically in two stages: the first consists of an ex ante examination of foreign policy matters by the Legislature, that is, before bills are formally presented for legislative deliberation. In the second stage, the game is played ex post at the beginning of the formal assessment of these propositions by the Legislature. The text's approach is based on William Riker's concept of heresthetics, taken as the ability to structure the world in order to win the game, transforming an unfavorable situation into one favorable to the achievement of given goals.
Foreign Policy; Democracy; Legislature; Decision Making
