This article examines the relationship between the Brazilian foreign aid, in the context of South-South Cooperation (SSC), and the formation of coalitions in the IMF and the World Bank. It explores whether the participation of a country in the bloc led by Brazil in the two organizations affects the volume of Brazilian foreign aid received by this country. As decisions are made by the Executive Board both in the IMF and the World Bank, the study focus on the alliances […]

Research on executive-legislative relations in presidential systems have emphasized how presidents use cabinet appointments to form and manage government coalitions in the absence of majority legislative support. Yet not all coalitions are similar, as some are larger and, consequently, more prone to agency and coordination problems than others. But what shapes presidents’ decision to include more parties in their coalitions? While several hypotheses exist in the literature, few have been tested in a systematic fashion, none focusing on why surplus […]

This article is a contribution to the study of the decision-making behind social policies. The literature usually stresses the role of elected politicians and the parliament in framing policies and underestimates governmental stakeholders, who do not hold elected offices, and bureaucrats. This article aims to highlight the active role of high-level federal bureaucrats in the design of policies. The analysis reclaims the classical categories and concepts developed by Lindblom (1980) and Crozier (1964), which points to the hybrid behaviour of […]

The article seeks to discuss strengths and problems of the assumptions of difference and of the ideals of sociopolitical integration in multiculturalist perspectives. The analysis is divided into three parts. In the first I look to show that the incorporation of two themes central to communitarianism – its questioning of the procedural demarcation of the boundaries between private and public spaces, and its critique of the theory of the subject that sustains liberal theses – has been essential to how […]

What is the profile of candidates whose electoral campaigns are the most dependent on corporate donations? Our main objective is to identify factors that help explaining the level of corporate dependence among them. We answer this question in relation to the 2010 elections for federal deputy in Brazil. We test five hypotheses: 01. right-wing party candidates are more dependent than their counterparts on the left; 02. government coalition candidates are more dependent than candidates from the opposition; 03. incumbents are […]

Studies on the effects of the internet on elections have revealed how Social Network Sites (SNSs) are used by citizens to learn about, choose and contact their representatives. This article analyzes 27 Twitter accounts managed by Fortaleza’s city councilors who ran for reelection in October 2012. The study aimed to discover the importance of Twitter in the councilors’ campaign strategies: what kind of messages were sent by the councilors who adopted digital communication strategies to their followers, and the relationship […]

The main purpose of this article is to show the relevance of the legislative branch participation in formatting bills originating in the executive. It shows that a strong executive is not necessarily accompanied by a weak legislature. By analyzing the changes the legislative made to executive bills through substitute bills and amendments to the legislation, the study shows that the legislative branch actively participates in drafting policies. By such means, the legislative branch is responsible for nearly 40 percent of […]

In The Idea of Justice (2009), Amartya Sen presents an approach to justice that seeks to make comparisons based on social realizations. This approach focuses attention both on real political-social institutions and on people’s behaviour, as well as other potential influences affecting the degree of justice existing in a given society. The new theoretical proposal advanced by Sen (2009) differs then from the theory of justice formulated by John Rawls (1999a) and other contemporary theorists. In the eyes of the […]

The debate about the operation of Brazilian political institutions is far from conclusive. It could hardly be different, since current Brazilian democratic regime is only 30 years-old. This article updates a previous one, published in 2000, in which I discuss different and rival interpretations on the functioning of the Brazilian democracy. Some new works argue that a ‘dialectic synthesis’ of those strands has been recently produced. This article demonstrates this argument is not accurate. Instead, my main argument is that, […]

This review presents the research paths taken in recent decades in the attempt to identify the causal relationship between international trade and development. It argues that this is a highly empirical issue which the traditional, multi-country studies have not been successful in unraveling. The academic literature found fertile ground in which to question the channels by which trade may affect development and give rise to research with more specific themes. The result is an enormous and diverse range of studies. […]

What is the impact of small parties on electoral outcomes? This articles aims at contributing to the literature on party systems by proposing a new method to classify political parties. The methodology is applied to Brazil by focusing on the description of the election results of small parties. Cluster analysis is employed to classify political party size based on their percentage of votes in the Brazilian states. The main findings indicate that classifying parties through cluster analysis is more objective […]

This paper explores a theoretical and political approach to discuss the idea (and ideal) of freedom. This approach is built through a dialogue between different theoretical views, especially Isaiah Berlin’s concept of freedom as non-interference, Philip Pettit’s idea of freedom as non-domination, and Nancy Hirschmann’s constructivist freedom. It sustains that the idea of ‘non-oppression’ is a useful approach to consider freedom in its complexity. Reading freedom from the ‘key’ of oppression allows us to think of not only ‘spaces’ of […]