The Invisible Side of Political Parties: The Case of the PCdoB

Abstract

The young Latin American democracies have been structuring their political parties for day-to-day management. In this context, it is important to understand how such structures could be affected by the so-called invisible side of organizations, which are composed of networks of relationships between elected politicians and then relationships between these and external militant groups, which can greatly influence the candidates’ performance and the very dynamics of the party. This article seeks to unravel some of these dimensions. We select for analysis the case of the PCdoB (Communist Party of Brazil), in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The results show the nature of the embeddedness of these actors in the political system, highlighting weaknesses and possibilities.