Entries and Withdrawals: Electoral Coordination across Different Offices and the Brazilian Party Systems

Abstract

In this article, we present new data on electoral alliances (coligações) that were formed to contest Brazilian general elections between 1986 and 2014. We present evidence to show that alliances formed for gubernatorial and lower house elections are connected to one another. These joint alliances are part of complex coordination strategies for managing the entry and withdrawal of candidates for concomitant elections regulated by different rules. As we shall show, these joint strategies result in: 01. interlinked processes of party concentration in subnational executive elections, and party fragmentation in national lower-house elections; which is the result of 02. the emergence of political parties that specialize in contesting elections for different political of ices.

Fragmentation Without Cleavages? Endogenous Fractionalization in the Brazilian Party System

“…We do not intend to explain why this situation came to be, but it meant that the dozens of non-formateur parties essentially operated under a different logic in which extracting resources from the presidency via legislative bargaining was the modus operandi. 41 While one could imagine that larger parties would have an advantageous bargaining position, the fact that no party has come even close to holding a majority of the seats meant that coalitions have always been highly internally fragmented-thus mirroring the overall structure of Congress. Given that presidents have attempted to insure against defections by building oversized coalitions, 42 they invest time and resources in wooing even the smallest of parties.…”

Agribusiness, Legislative Elections and Party Fragmentation in Brazil

“…If we rule out explanations of a social nature, given that the degree of social division did not undergo any significant changes within our analysed period, a natural response would be to consider the strategic concerns of the elites, once again examining the institutional context of party politics. In this vein, two explanations have been proposed recently: one considers fragmentation as an unanticipated effect of the attempt of elites to survive in a complex institutional environment (Calvo et al, 2015; Limongi and Guarnieri, 2018; Limongi and Vasselai, 2018; Borges and Turgeon, 2019); the other considers increased party fragmentation as the result of the migration of politicians towards small parties (Cheibub et al, 2022) or the creation and proliferation of micro‐parties (Zucco and Power, 2021), both phenomena in turn an unanticipated consequence of decisions issued by the Electoral Court regarding the distribution of public resources in favour of parties and free advertising hours in mass media.…”

Sob a superfície do sistema partidário: carreiras políticas e eleições majoritárias

“…A primeira diz respeito às condições de elegibilidade, seja com estudos comparativos (BORBA; CERVI, 2017) ou com estudos de caso longitudinais como os diversos capítulos de Lavareda e Telles (2011). A segunda agenda de pesquisa trata da articulação das eleições para os diversos cargos das eleições gerais do ponto de vista da formação de coligações eleitorais (MIRANDA, 2013;NASCIMENTO, 2010;GODOI, 2012, LIMONGI;VASSELAI, 2018), ou de suas influências recíprocas na decisão do voto (SOARES, 2013;BORGES, 2019).…”

“…7 Ademais, o indicador a partir do segundo ciclo cresceu ininterruptamente. Pesquisas que observaram o sistema partidário exclusivamente pela ótica da eleição de Governadores leram o período de 1994-2014 como estável ou tendente à concentração partidária (BRAGA, 2006;VASSELAI, 2018).…”