Political pluralism and multi-party system: the impacts of constitutional amendment nº 97 of 2017 on the proportional elections of 2020 and 2022

• Grant number: 21/03234-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: July 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: Murilo Gaspardo
• Grantee: Letícia Rezende Santos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Constitutional Amendment nº 97 of 2017 to the Brazilian 1988 Constitution was proposed and approved in a context of democratic crisis, in which the fragmentation of the Brazilian party system and the political parties themselves are widely questioned. Moreover, the Amendment constitutes an important legislative innovation, since it prohibited the formation of electoral alliances in proportional elections and established an election threshold, with the purpose of further rationalizing the political scenery in Brazil. Accordingly, the general objective of this research project is to provide a legislative analysis of Constitutional Amendment nº 97 of 2017 with regard to its impacts on party fragmentation and its possible side effects on political pluralism. The specific aims of this study are: to search, in the literature, for analyzes of the Brazilian party system, in order to define theoretical parameters to assess the need and convenience of the changes implemented by the Amendment; to understand the political context in which the Constitutional Amendment Project (PEC) nº 36 of 2016 was prepared, as well as its goals; to compare the purposes envisioned by the legislator through the Constitutional Amendment nº 97 of 2017 and the theoretical parameters found to the factual reality established after its enforcement; and to critically analyze the Amendment answering the following inquiry: is the Constitutional Amendment nº 97 of 2017 effective, efficacious and efficient? The time frame of this research project reaches from 2012 to 2022, and takes as an important mark the protests that took place in March 2013. This research is placed within the epistemological field of the State Theory, and takes legistics as its methodological approach. Research techniques employed will be bibliographical revision and documental analysis. (AU)