Beneath the surface of the party system: political careers and majority elections

Abstract:

The main purpose of this article is to verify if the high fragmentation of political-party representation identified in the lower house of the Brazilian parliament also occurs in non-proportional elections to the Federal Senate, state executive branches and the city halls of state capitals. In addition, the article explores whether the founding of new parties diminishes the control of traditional parties over relevant power positions and if the creation of these new channels for political competition helps non-career politicians gain access to such positions. To answer those questions, we analyzed the partisan distribution of 27 state governments, 26 states capital city halls and the 81 seats in the Senate between 1994 and 2016. This mapping allows us to demonstrate that these majoritarian electoral seats were open to only a small number of “traditional” parties - PMDB, PSDB, PT and DEM, whose politicians circulated from post to post.

Keywords:
elections; political parties; political recruitment; political careers; political sociology