Political parties and federalism: recent international research, the German experience and the case of Brazil

• Grant number: 19/22523-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: December 15, 2019
• End date: April 14, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Behavior
• Principal Investigator: Bruno Wilhelm Speck
• Grantee: Bruno Wilhelm Speck
• Host Investigator: Peter Birle
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Germany

Abstract

Research on political parties has long been devoted to the analysis of national party systems, both in Brazil and in other countries. Subnational political units played a minor role in understanding parties in representative democracy. More recently, the relationship between political parties and federative systems has gained prominence in political science. This project aims to review the recent academic debate on political parties in federative systems, with a special focus on the case of Germany. A preliminary systematization of party research in federative systems suggests separating work with a focus on congruence between subnational party systems and the national system; from research that take subnational party systems as autonomous units, analyzing their variety and their determining factors; and from more recent lines of inquiry, focusing on the interaction between national and subnational systems. The aim is to systematize different approaches on the subject, based on empirical research on Germany (since reunification) and to evaluate the applicability for multilevel research on political parties in contemporary Brazil. Expected products include a qualified journal publication reporting the case of Germany and guidance for a research project on subnational party systems in Brazil (since 1982). (AU)