Resumo em Inglês:

Although equality of opportunity is a fundamental idea of the egalitarian project, there is a continuing controversy about the effective distributive implications of the notion. This paper focuses on this controversy, and maintains that when equality of opportunity is correctly understood, it entails strong distributive implications. In this way, this paper intends to reject the notion that equality of opportunity is associated with a non-institutional idea of meritocracy: an idea which is often used as an ideological tool to make unacceptable inequalities seem acceptable. This paper defends the argument that only an ‘institution-dependent’ conception of equality of opportunity, such as Rawls’ fair equality opportunity, is the most adequate interpretation for a liberal democratic society. Nonetheless, it does not mean that individual merit has no place in liberal democratic societies. Fair equality of opportunity - if correctly understood - is deeply relevant and might contribute to a significant reduction of economic inequality, much more so than is currently perceived in the public debate.

Resumo em Inglês:

An emerging literature finds that legislators frequently suffer a negative incumbency advantage in developing countries but disagrees as to the sources of this anti-incumbent bias. We contribute to this literature by examining the case of Brazil, where the extant literature predicts a large incumbency disadvantage. Building a new methodology for OLPR which leverages both inter- and intraparty thresholds, we find, contrary to expectations, a large ‘positive’ incumbency advantage. We further exploit within-country variation and show that this advantage appears to be largest in the least developed areas. Our results suggest that previous work may be confounding country-specific factors with development levels.

Resumo em Inglês:

In the current international system, countries have responded in distinct manners to migratory phenomenon, principally in the internal sphere. Using Hermann’s Model, this study intends to verify, using documentary analysis, the level of influence which the international treaties signed by Brazil exercised on the formulation of migration legislation in the country between the Foreigner Statute (Law Nº 6.815/1980) and the 2017 Migration Law (Law Nº 13.445/2017). The results show that the Migration Law was more successful in enshrining terms established in international agreements, since the Foreigner Statute was created in a period in which the foreign policy agenda did not defend post-national citizenship.

Resumo em Inglês:

The recognition of issues as public problems and the ways governments prioritize them constitute focal points in the study of policy change and policy dynamics. In Brazil and other Latin American countries, social welfare systems and related policies have undergone transformations throughout the recent democratic period. This article aims to understand changes in the Brazilian social welfare agenda by means of an analysis of the attention given to social welfare policies at the federal level. The main analytical and methodological contribution of this article is its use of the research strategy developed under the Comparative Agendas Project (CAP) to analyze the Brazilian situation. We drew on a set of unpublished datasets on the attention given by governments to social welfare policies from 1988 to 2018 that involves more than one thousand observations across six different datasets. The analyses are made at two different levels: first, we seek to understand macro trends and moments of continuity and inflection in social welfare policy by federal government administration. Second, we analyze the composition of the attention given to social welfare policies, thereby identifying the themes given the highest priority.

Resumo em Inglês:

Recent controversies in the literature on the electoral effects of cash transfer programs reveal the limitations of traditional models associating public policies to voting. Why would beneficiaries reward parties for programmatic policies when the government has no control over the distribution of the benefits? Are they guided by short-term retrospective voting in favor of the incumbent without forming durable links? By studying the Brazilian case, based on the Bolsa Escola-Program, formulated by the PSDB, and the Bolsa-Família Program, formulated by the PT, I test different theories and propose an alternative approach. My thesis is that the long-term electoral effect of programmatic policies is a consequence of credit-claiming efforts made by the competing parties, resulting in reciprocity from voters. My argument is built on the examination of parliamentary deliberations throughout the formulation of these programs and on the analysis of public opinion surveys conducted in 2005, a transitional moment when there were beneficiaries of both programs, and in 2018, the year of the first presidential election with the Bolsa-Família Program being implemented with the PT as an opposition party. The data show that party leaders came to the defense of these social programs to varying degrees and in different moments of their terms in office and that these different mobilization strategies reflected on voting behavior.

Resumo em Inglês:

Voting for a presidential ticket is a common characteristic that is particular to the majority of presidential systems. When a voter chooses a candidate for president, they are actually also voting for the other person on the ticket, in other words, the potential successor if the mandate is interrupted. Therefore, the selection of the candidate who will run for election alongside the presidential candidate represents an opportunity to nominate someone who can increase the ticket’s electorate or increase a possible president’s capacity for governance. In the literature there is an absence of systematic studies of these strategies used in the selection of vice-presidential candidates. In order to fill part of this gap, this study proposes a Vice-Presidential Candidate Profile Index (VPCPI), which allows an analysis of the strategies adopted in the selection of running mates. For the case of Brazil after redemocratization, the results were hybrid, in other words, strategies were adopted to select candidates who can help attract votes for the ticket, but who also have political experience to act in future governments.