Making newness feasible: local party systems and new parties entry

• Grant number: 19/01456-4
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science
• Principal Investigator: Oswaldo Martins Estanislau Do Amaral
• Grantee: Otávio Zilioli Catelano
• Home Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In this research we aim to explain the institutional factors that define the local party systems and which arrangement between these factors favors the entry of new parties. To do so, we will analyze the electoral performance for the mayor office of the eight Brazilian parties created in the current decade (2010-today). In particular, we will observe the disputes that occurred in municipalities with less than 200,000 voters. Since these disputes are in a single-member districts fashion, which tend to favor a two-party system (DUVERGER, 1970), they bring us closer to the assumptions of Mainwaring and Scully (1995). Based on the concept of party system institutionalization, we build our hypothesis: new parties tend to be more able to achieve electoral success in municipalities whose party systems are less institutionalized. We will take into account the dynamics of party migration and local politics. Studying the entry of new parties into local party systems is important because these parties can change the current electoral pattern if they are able to present viable competitors in those elections. In this sense, this can give us information about how much these local party systems are institutionalized or not, in that they allow the competitive entrance of new actors; as well as relations between parties and voters, insofar as they vote in new parties. In this research, we will use the quantitative analysis of data that will be taken from the TSE and IBGE. (AU)