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Brazilian Political Science Review, Volume: 16, Número: 2, Publicado: 2022
  • Why has Participatory Budgeting Declined in Brazil? Article

    Bezerra, Carla de Paiva; Junqueira, Murilo de Oliveira

    Resumo em Inglês:

    Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic policy innovation created in Brazil in the early 1990s, recognized worldwide as an effective policy tool for directly involving the population in budget decisions. Its diffusion in Brazil was strongly stimulated by the Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores - PT) as a showcase of the ‘Petista Way of Governing’. However, after the party took the presidential office, PB lost its status as a top participatory policy. Without its leading promoter, PB gradually declined in Brazil. What explains such a drastic change in PT’s policy preference? What are the possible explanations for the retrenchment of PB? We argue that gradual changes in fiscal laws have led to lower investment and tighter local budgets, reducing the effectiveness of PB and discouraging further adoption of this policy, thus resulting in its decline in Brazil. The shift in PT’s policy preference is therefore explained by the fact that the party adapted to the context of increasing budgetary rigidity. Using panel data analysis, we found that both the adoption and the continuity of PB at the local level between 1996 and 2016 are strongly correlated with budget and investment, a finding that supports our initial hypothesis.
  • Democratization and Graduation Dilemmas Faced by Regional Powers in the Global South: A comparative Study of Brazil and South Africa Article

    Braga, Pablo de Rezende Saturnino

    Resumo em Inglês:

    This article aims to understand how democratization processes have influenced the foreign policy of regional powers in the Global South. Our theoretical model brings together the concepts of ‘regional power’ and ‘graduation dilemma’. It is used for a comparative study of Brazil and South Africa’s foreign policy in two stages: 01. ‘prestige diplomacy’ with a focus on human rights in the 1990s; and 02. global projection in the 2000s. We employ a comparative methodology that uses process tracing to build an analytical grid in order to reveal the particularities of the causal mechanisms in the historical trajectories of the two countries. Prestige diplomacy was successful for both Brazil and South Africa in the 1990s and both sought to play international leadership roles in the 2000s. Nonetheless, their responses to the graduation dilemmas were different, especially in relation to their respective regions. South Africa engaged more actively in crisis mediation processes and peace operations in its region; Brazil had a more inconsistent participation in regional crises and frequently retreated from regional alliances when seeking to increase its international status, which generated friction with its neighbors.
  • The Governance of Public Budgeting: a Proposal for Comparative Analyses - the Cases of São Paulo and London Article

    Peres, Ursula Dias

    Resumo em Inglês:

    This paper aims at understanding the governance of public budgeting in large metropolises with the use of comparative analysis. The analysis is focused on budgetary governance in London and São Paulo and uses qualitative and quantitative data from 2008 to 2019 to understand whether analytical categories such as incrementalism of expenditures, complexity of budgetary rules, bureaucratic hierarchy, bargaining, and muddling through are useful to compare two metropolises, especially to determine the discretionary power of mayors in making budget allocation decisions. The analytical categories are derived from the studies of theorists of economics and political sociology, notably Wildavsky (1975, 1969), Wildavsky and Caiden (2004), Schick (2009, 1976), Caiden (2010) Lascoumes and Le Galès (2005), Baumgartner and Jones (2005), and Fuchs (2012, 2010). The main argument of the paper is that, despite the administrative and political differences between London and São Paulo, similar dimensions can explain decisions about budget allocation and the political discretionary power of mayors. The study shows that mayors have little discretionary power, particularly in contexts of fiscal austerity; it also highlights the importance of property tax as a means to protect such power.
  • Digital activism and democratic culture: can digital technologies help save democracy? Article

    Silva, Diego Moraes; Kemer, Thaise

    Resumo em Inglês:

    This study investigates digital activism and democratic culture among citizens of São Paulo, Brazil. It aims to understand: 01. whether digital participation is becoming a surrogate instance of other forms of participation; and 02. whether digital activists share a specific political culture regarding democratic attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on a representative sample of 2,417 interviews, we apply multivariate analysis techniques to characterize digital activists in terms of political participation and democratic culture. Our findings show that digital participation complements – rather than replaces – other forms of participation. We also found that although the levels of democratic culture among digital-only activists were lower than among activists who participate in several arenas, digital-only activists embrace democratic culture more significantly than non-activists. This finding suggests that digital-only participation could be an important first step in developing democratic attitudes in individuals, albeit this form of participation is not sufficient to foster the highest level of democratic culture.
  • Building Parties’ Grassroots: Electoral Systems, Party Organizations, and Social Linkages from a Cross-National Perspective Article

    Locatelli, Luís

    Resumo em Inglês:

    This article explores the connection between the proportional electoral system (PR) and party organizations as a key institutional determinant of party-group linkages from cross-party and national perspectives. Developing a nuanced framework, we propose an integrated model to address two questions: 01. Do candidate-centred electoral systems affect the development of party-group linkages? 02. In the case that electoral systems do have an impact, is it a direct impact or is it mediated by party organizations? Using V-Party (2020) and V-Dem (2020) databases, we selected and analyzed 617 parties in 48 countries covering third-wave democracies, post-communist countries, and the most extensive proportional democracies in Europe (Western and Eastern Europe) and Latin America between 1989 and 2019 – Large- N cross-national comparative analysis (JANDA, 1980). Based on panel models, we found that the candidate-centred electoral system is negatively related to the development of strong ties between parties and groups, but only in the case of party organizations with low levels of party strength, intraparty cohesion, and financial linkages with non-party groups. When decision-making powers are concentrated in the hands of powerful party elites, these elites can solve coordination problems, mitigate intraparty conflicts, and deal with the consequences of personalization. Therefore, intraparty politics varies empirically since parties respond to their contextual challenges (electoral rules) strategically, with consequences for party-group linkages.
  • -State Presence in Brazilian Social Assistance Services: Effects on the Creation of Nonprofit Private Providers Article

    Karruz, Ana Paula; Sátyro, Natália; Cunha, Eleonora

    Resumo em Inglês:

    A growing body of literature addresses Brazil’s National Policy of Social Assistance, but little is known about the factors that affect the creation of nonprofit, private social assistance providers (PSAPs) in the country. This paper analyzes the historical patterns of PSAP creation in Brazil. We argue that the place of PSAPs within the social protection system changed during the 2000s and that this change stems from a reassessment of the state’s role in this area. We also contend that a switch in incentives and increased state provision slowed down the rate of PSAP creation. We conducted a document analysis to create a panorama of the institutional landscape (1930s-2000s); using a unique dataset, we also estimated the association between state presence and PSAP creation (2000-2017). This mixed-method research strategy supports our claim that the direct provision of social services by the state has contributed to the decline in PSAP creation, as the mixed-method approach reveals both a mechanism for institutional change and evidence of its implications.
  • How Politics and Economics Work Together to Limit Development: Institutional Complementarities in Brazil Book Review

    Phillips, Jonathan
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