The electoral alliances in proportional elections and their impacts over political representation

• Grant number: 12/20927-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2013
• End date: December 31, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: Luís Virgílio Afonso da Silva
• Grantee: Larissa Lafuente Dahyr
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazilian electoral legislation authorizes the political parties to compose alliances to run for the proportional elections. There is a debate among researchers regarding whether this instrument brings positive or negative effects to the country's political representation. Given this scenery, this research is based on the hypothesis that these alliances have negative effects over political representation, contributing to the increase of parties and to the distortion of the elector's will. The research will investigate two different periods of Brazilian history in which electoral alliances were allowed, the first before the Military Regime and the second, after that. Previous researches about this subject will be taken into account. Regarding the actual scenery, electoral database will be used in order to test the established hypothesis. Further, the research will analyze the legislation proposals currently in examination in the National Congress that seek to modify the rules about electoral alliances in proportional elections.(AU)