Although most of the studies on political culture stress on attitudes of the population as a whole, some researchers have dedicated their attention to the political values of the national political elite. We believe that the same attention must be paid to the political attitudes of regional political elites, since they operate central parts of the political system (the sub-national units of the political system). This article analyses the political opinions of the members of the Paraná state parliament, based on data collected by a survey. We intend to indicate the importance of the "ideological position" variable to understand the differences in the intensity of the adhesion to the democratic system between the right and left wing members of the Paraná state parliament.
parliamentary elite; political attitudes; ideological position; Brazil
