Abstract
This article starts from the assumption that there is significant variation in the relationship between legislators and parties in Brazil and seeks to explain it from a study conducted in twelve states. The variation is measured with the aid of an index of partisanship, built on a set of questions asked the elected representatives to the Legislative Assemblies in 2007-2011 and 2011-2015 legislatures. The variation found is explained on two levels. The first refers to one of the dimensions of institutionalization of various state party systems: the stability of electoral competition. The second refers to a series of individual characteristics of the deputies, among which stands out the time to party affiliation. Ideology, degree of particularism in office and degree of progressivism in relation to contemporary issues also have significant impact on the dependent variable - the degree of partisanship. The hypotheses presented here had been tested based on data for the first of the above legislatures. By adding a second term, this study confirms and gives more robust results found.
Keywords:
deputies; parties; state party systems; Legislative Assemblies; ideology