Abstract Although research on gender inequality in political representation often focuses on issues such as institutional constraints, the role of political parties, campaign costs, or shortcomings in the design of gender quotas, fewer studies examine women’s political careers directly. This article analyzes women’s political careers beginning at the city council level, the most accessible and available elected office in the Brazilian political system. To do so, we conduct a long-term analysis (2002–2020) of the prior and subsequent electoral trajectories of […]

This article addresses the subject of clientelism with reference to an unprecedented set of data resulting from a survey of 422 municipal councilors in 44 Brazilian municipalities. Our aim was to verify whether a propensity for clientelist behavior was uniformly distributed among the councilors surveyed and, in the event that it was not, to identify factors that could explain any variations. Our analysis revealed that clientelism – understood as the degree of exposure on the part of councilors to voter […]