This article analyses the ideological patterns of coalitions performed at the elections for governor, federal representative, state representative and mayor, between 1986 and 2004, in Santa Catarina. The main goal is to verify to what extent ideology constitutes an obstacle to the making of "inconsistent" coalitions and if there are changes in the coalitions patterns, along the period at study. The analysis reveals that at the beginning of the operation of the current party system the proportion of ideologically inconsistent coalitions was small, in relation to the candidatures as a whole. As time passed by, however, the proportion of ideologically inconsistent coalitions increased substantially.
electoral coalitions; political parties; ideology; state politics
