Representation of interests in the Brazilian House of Representatives: strategies, actors and political agenda

Abstract

Some authors have already shown that, in the Legislature context, the committee is the locus for which is directed a great part of the work of the interest groups. Thus, the aim of this article is to carry out a descriptive study about the dynamics of interest representation at public hearings of the Committee of Science and Technology, Communication and Information Technology of the Brazilian House of Representatives, between 2007 and 2012. This way, it aims to identify which groups acted politically through this mechanism and which the parts of the political agenda dealt with in this organ of the Legislature. The descriptive analysis shows that in this committee interests of society and government are strongly represented, leading to a legislative environment marked by an increasingly wide range of inputs generated by social participation and scrutiny, growing stronger, from multiple sectors of government.

Keywords:
public hearings; CCTCI-CD; interest groups; networks of influence