Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 56 n. 2 Rio de Janeiro abr./jun. 2013
Abstract
Horizontal accountability is a key challenge to new democracies, and especially so in those regimes where 'reactive' legislatures face dominant presidents. Although the 1988 Constitution gives impressive legislative and agenda-setting powers to the Brazilian president, it also equips the legislature with a set of oversight tools that can be used to monitor or scrutinize the powerful executive. In analysing a large database of oversight initiatives between 1988 and 2005, we trace broad trends and patterns in the overall usage of oversight tools and attempt to isolate the political and institutional conditions under which they are deployed. We find that the use of oversight mechanisms has risen in recent years, that oversight is mediated by measures of presidential popularity and by the size of the pro-presidential faction in Congress, and that oversight responds to the logic of Brazil's coalitional politics, driven by the shifting context of the executive-legislative relationship under multiparty presidentialism.
Keywords: Brazil, Congress, legislature, oversight, legislative information, hearings
DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582013000200005
Determinants of oversight in a reactive legislature: the case of Brazil (1988-2005)
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