Brazil: Electoral Process

President · Term: 4 years · Election: majority run-off when below 50% + 1 Re-election: one successive term

Congress · Elections considered concurrent with presidential elections · Senate: 81 seats w/3 seats per state; elected for 4 year terms on an alternating basis (1/3 to 2/3 of the Senate); majority run-off elections · Lower house: 513 seats, 4 year terms and elected by PR (large districts) Over 20 parties in Congress and politicians can switch parties once in office so proportion of seats held by each party changes regularly

States · Have a lot of autonomy · 27 governors directly elected for 4 year terms; majority run-off Elections are concurrent with presidential and congressional elections

General · Median DoM: 11 · Lower house ENP, since 1945 for all democratic elections: 6.3 (from David J. Samuels “The Gubernatorial Coattails Effect) · 1963: Constitutional referendum passed that changed regime from presidentialism to parliamentarism to reduce the president’s power. Military coup in ’64 would disable this though · Constitution of 1988 resulted in a turn away from military dictatorship to more democratic institutions · 1993: The corruption shakedown of Fernando Collor led to a referendum on changing the regime yet again, and by a majority Brazil chose a presidential republic. This legitimized the Brazilian regime.

Brazil’s voters are automatically registered and voting is compulsory for all literate adults from 18-70 years old and optional for 16-17y/o and those older than 70.Typically, concurrent elections make the number of parties go down, but it is interesting to note that Brazil experiences party fragmentation despite having concurrent elections. For example, there are currently over 20 parties in Congress. It seems that having an open-list system, high district of magnitude, low voter party affiliation and politicians’ ability to switch parties once in office makes a vote more personal than partisan in Brazil. Furthermore, each state is eligible for 8-70 seats in the lower house, and this empowers smaller states and smaller parties. Brazil is very decentralized and a lot of power lies in the hands of the states. In addition, legislators consistently vie for state-based issues rather than national agenda because their incentives are aligned with the state that elected them. Legislators from large districts are elected by proportional representation, which reduces their respective individual electoral accountability.