Extreme non-viable candidates and quota maneuvering in Brazilian legislative elections

Abstract

This article explores the causes and consequences of extreme non-viable candidacies, also known as “ laranja ” (orange) candidacies in the Brazilian political lore. We first define and delineate what makes a candidate a laranja, engaging the comparative literature on sacrificial lambs and using district-level electoral results to operationalize the concept. We then advance a typology of laranjas with four ideal types that vary along dimensions of legality and intentionality. Next, we apply descriptive statistics and a hierarchical logistic regression model to explore the individual, party, and district-level characteristics of extreme non-viable candidates and assess whether and how laranjas are distinct from non- laranjas. Finally, we illustrate the gendered character of laranjas, documenting how the candidate gender quota law in Brazil has been associated with a proliferation of candidatas laranjas (women extreme non-viable candidates).

Follow the Money: Gender, Incumbency, and Campaign Funding in Chile

“…If non-viable candidates are those receiving 1% or less than the vote share of the worst winner (Wylie et al, 2019), then all candidates were viable in 2017. Using SERVEL data, we find that losing candidates received anywhere between 120 votes to 25,470 votes, and winning candidates received anywhere between 3095 votes to 103,337 votes.…”

Informal institutions and gendered candidate selection in Brazilian parties

“…Since the original quota allowed parties to submit lists with nominations up to 150% of the number of available seats and only required that they “reserve” candidacies for women, parties could comply with the letter of the law without nominating a single woman by leaving 30% of candidacies reserved but ultimately unfilled. In 2009, Brazil enacted an electoral “mini-reform” that included changes to the language of the gender quota from “reserve” to “fill”—since the 2010 elections, parties have been expected to nominate women to 30% of candidacies, rather than simply reserve those positions, although enforcement remained weak until 2014 (Wylie and dos Santos, 2016; Wylie et al, 2019). In the wake of several unsuccessful attempts to strengthen gender quota provisions through legislative means, a change in the campaign finance law led to the creation of a public campaign fund, opening an alternative route to effectuate the quota.…”

“…Since its implementation in national and state legislative elections in 1998, Brazil’s gender quota has been notoriously ineffective (Araújo, 2003; Bolognesi, 2012; Wylie and dos Santos, 2016). Characterized as “a law on paper only,” even subsequent efforts to reform the quota in 2009 and 2018 have come up empty handed (Wylie et al, 2019). Six electoral cycles since the quota’s initial implementation, with three of those elections held after the 2009 mini-reform, just 15% of the 513 members of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies are women.…”

“…As articulated by Waylen, “informal institutions can often be difficult to perceive—somewhat like dark matter—but we know they are there because of their effects on other things” (Waylen, 2017: 4). Our selection of these two informal institutions is a strategic choice driven in part by their observability and availability of rich data (Barbieri et al, 2019; Wylie et al, 2019). Laranjas and the extended use of provisional commissions are just two of the many mechanisms that fall under our gendered conceptualization of informal institutions that thwart gender equity rules in Brazil and elsewhere.…”

Stigmatized Campaign Practices and the Gendered Dynamics of Electoral Viability

“…Women occupy few offices in Brazil: In the 2018 elections, women were elected to only 15% of seats in the National Congress and one governorship (of 27). In recent years, Brazil's first and only woman president was impeached (dos Santos and Jalalzai, 2021) and elections were marked by scandals involving women "phantom candidates"-candidates on paper only, nominated for the purposes of quota compliance (Wylie et al, 2019). As political outsiders, however, women may require more efforts to improve their name recognition, so face-to-face campaigns may be more important for strengthening women's electoral competitiveness than men's (Gatto and Thome, 2020).…”