Artigo



Dados vol. 37 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 1994

A Organização Partidária Local nas Eleições Presidenciais Brasileiras de 1989

Ames, Barry

Resumo

In industrial societies, class, ethnicity, and religion are determining factors in election results. It is believed and local party organizations have been playing ever more marginal roles in national elections. Has the mass media ended up reducing local parties to mere spectators? Are local party machines too weak to lend their support to presidential candidates? This article analyzes the effects that local organizations had on Brazil's 1989 presidential races. Brazil is a kind of case study in the collapse of local party organizations given its interruption in political competition, the absence of parties boasting participation in the country's earlier democratic experience, and the fragility of citizen-party identification. Most observers of the 1989 presidential contest effectively affirm that television "made" the winning candidate and that political parties had little or no importance in the final results. Nevertheless, the candidates themselves acted as if party support were relevant and, within the context of Brazilian politics, it was rational for mayors to barter votes in exchange for future advantages for their municipalities. Throughout the article, the author made use of models of growing complexity in analyzing the voting data on major candidates. These models, which include both measurements of party inclination as well as socioeconomic and demographic factors, reveal that candidates attained better results in municipalities where the mayor represented their supporting party. The models underscore the effects that spatial factors such as "friends and neighbors'' have on the tactics of local politicians, and also make it possible to distinguish between popular and charismatic components and purely organizational factors of political support.

Texto completo

A Organização Partidária Local nas Eleições Presidenciais Brasileiras de 1989