La conexión subnacional: geografía del voto y coaliciones electorales en el federalismo brasileño

Abstract

This paper proposes to inquire on the stability and change of electoral coalitions in national legislative elections in Brazil. We argue that the definition of territorial patterns of voting of both political parties and individual candidates is strongly associated with the government-opposition cleavage at the state level. In Brazilian federalism, state governments control formal and informal resources that allow them to exert substantial influence in the mobilization of local party networks and voters in “pro-incumbent” localities. (...) These patterns reflect institutional characteristics of Brazilian democracy, especially regarding the centrality of national and state Executives in the governing process and in the electoral arena. The paper analyzes the geography of the vote of government and opposition parties in three states of the federation —Río Grande del Norte, Minas Gerais and Bahía— from 1998 to 2006.