Federal Deputies Research Articles

Electoral Systems and the Autocrat’s Trade-Off: Evidence from the Russian Duma

abstract: Legislative elections sustain authoritarian regimes, but distinct electoral systems simultaneously benefit and hurt the political prospects of those regimes. The author theorizes about a trade-off between electoral systems that facilitate information on local elite preferences, and systems that maintain legislative control. An electoral system can achieve either, but not at the same time. The author undertakes an empirical study of Russian federal deputies, half of whom are elected in single-member districts, the other half on a nationwide closed-party list. Candidates can register on both lists (N = 515), and district results determine final list affiliation. Electoral incentives change abruptly for deputies who are barely winning or losing their district, a fact that the author exploits to identify the effects of local representation on pro- and antiregime parliamentary behavior. The results support a trade-off: district-list deputies convey more information on local preferences in their speeches than party-list deputies do, but they oppose law proposals more frequently. How autocrats weigh this trade-off determines the electoral system and illuminates electoral reform in autocracies.

Brazilian Parties in the XXI Century and the Conservative Agenda of the New Right

Conservative agenda is a fundamental component of the New Right politics in the public debate throughout the world. However, in Brazil, the conservative agenda has been advanced across the entire party system, from left to right, by new and old political parties. This paper compares proposals for constitutional amendments presented between 2001 and 2022 by federal deputies in Brazil, focusing on targeted restrictions of rights and guarantees and the tightening of law-and-order provisions. The findings show that neither new-entrant parties nor ideology predict the saliency of conservative content in parties’ constitutional activity. This analysis contributes to disentangling the conservative agenda from the concept of right-wing politics, even the New Right.

As deputadas federais do Partido Liberal (2023-27): um estudo sobre as ameaças ao feminismo e à democracia

This article presentes a study on the performance of federal deputies from the Liberal Party in the 57ª legislature (2023-27) in the current processo of the confrontation against the principles ofthe feminism aiming to understand how the defense of anti-feminism and anti-democratic ideal is carried out by these legislators, vocalized of extremists values. Some academic currents reflect on the links between the advance of the extremism in politics and the defense of neoconservative values with the consolidation of neoliberalismo, with wich this research shares. The methodology adopted was an exhaustive survey at press report about the deputies, based on the profiles drawn, categories were created that inform the singulaties and diferences between them. The results show that the values and actions of these legislators threaten the rights conquered by feminist, movements, even democracy itself, demanding reflection on the need for the progressive movements to develop strategies to resist the advance of extremis and maitain sectors of the center and center-left with them, expanding the field of allies in the fight for rights and, above all, for the continuity of democracy.

Ideological polarization between federal deputies in Brazil (2005-2021)

Resumo O artigo analisa a polarização ideológica dos deputados federais brasileiros entre 2005-2021. Utiliza como base empírica surveys realizadas com parlamentares durante o período (Brazilian Legislative Survey [BLS] e o Latin American Elites project of the University of Salamanca [PELA-USAL]). São encontradas evidências que os parlamentares brasileiros se tornaram mais liberais em temas culturais e com posições em favor do mercado acerca das questões econômicas. Quando as posições são analisadas por partido e sua localização no eixo esquerda/direita, encontraram-se evidências de uma maior diferenciação entre os partidos à medida que nos afastamos de 2005. Porém, isso não significa que estejamos diante de um sistema partidário polarizado. O mais correto seria afirmar que estamos diante de um quadro de partidos mais diferenciados num sistema não polarizado.

Human Rights and Gender Proposals Made by the Women Federal Deputies in Brazil (2019-2022)

Human Rights and Gender Proposals Made by the Women Federal Deputies in Brazil (2019-2022)

Women in politics in Brazil: inclusion and political capital of female federal deputies

Women in politics in Brazil: inclusion and political capital of female federal deputies

“VIRADA MORAL” E ENTEXTUALIZAÇÃO DO HOMOSSEXUAL COMO PEDÓFILO EM FALAS DE BOLSONARO NO CONGRESSO (2000 A 2018)

ABSTRACT In this article, we aim to carry out a qualitative-quantitative investigation of 922 shorthand notes of Federal Deputy Jair Bolsonaro´s speeches in the Chamber of Deputies from 2000 to 2018. As objectives, we analyze (i) the presence of religious and military lexical items in the hatred rhetoric of Bolsonaro throughout this chronological segmentation and (ii) the “moral turn” in his political discourse, when, from 2011 on, he starts to associate homosexuality with pedophilia. To do so, we anchored ourselves in a lexical analysis methodology, bringing Corpus Linguistics closer to Linguistic Anthropology. To that end, we distributed the data into two sub-corpora, from 2000 to 2010 and from 2011 to 2018, having as a parameter, firstly, to describe the diachronic contrast in the occurrences of 20 keywords, divided into 10 for the religious discourse and 10 for the military, and, secondly, to explain the reentextualization of the sign “pedophilia” in the (re)organization of the relationship between hate speech, homophobia and moral panic in the speeches of the politician. The pronouncements were processed in the AntConc program and in Excel. From 2011 on, the Bolsonarist discourse begins to balance the use of lexicons from the ultraconservative military discourse and the Christian fundamentalist discourse.

Does Politics even use Lipstick? A study on power, gender, and legitimacy in Brazilian Politics

Although societies have made some progress in gender equality, in most countries, women remain a minority in parliaments. In Brazil, women work, vote, syndicate, and exercise other fundamental rights. However, in many areas, especially those related to work, the participation of women still needs to be questioned, as is the case of political participation. This investigation aimed to investigate how Brazilian female political representatives see the scenario of female participation in the country’s politics. For this, the theories of the Glass Ceiling with that of Max Weber’s Legitimacy of Power were associated. The study is qualitative in the qualitative approach and the narrative method, with structured interviews applied to state and federal deputies and Brazilian senators; the discourse analysis technique was used. The fusion of the two theories provided resources for the analysis of power if considered gender and the understanding of the role of sexism in the low rates of female participation in politics. There is a vicious circle in which the female population hardly gets involved in public life because it oversees private life and the few women who participate face many obstacles. It is up to the parties’ fundamental role to include women in their staff, not only to comply with Brazilian legal provisions but also to eradicate the idea that politics is masculine.

HIGHEST CASTE ON THE DEFENDANT'S SEAT:

After the end of colonial periods, many Latin American countries struggled with authoritarian regimes. Most of these countries experienced waves of authoritarianism followed by democratic moments during the last century. For that reason, democratic institutions were built under the imminent threat of a coup d’état. To ensure that presidents would not be persecuted for political reasons, Brazil has established that its Supreme Court (Supremo Tribunal Federal) would be the only court with powers to judge presidents (except impeachment cases), federal deputies, and senators, amongst other higher authorities. Based on the Brazilian example, this work seeks to understand if other Latin American countries also offer the same protection to their authorities and why. What are the factors that influence the existence of jurisdictional privilege? Furthermore, what does influence the extent of the privilege given to more or fewer authorities? This research used a multi-method approach to present and analyze the institutional phenomenon of jurisdictional privilege. First of all, exploratory and descriptive comparative research was carried out from Latin American constitutional texts to identify where jurisdictional privileges are present and their respective amounts. Then, a quantitative analysis applied statistical tests to the variables included in the research database, to check possible correlations between institutional quality indexes and the variation in the number of representative categories of political authorities benefiting from the privilege of jurisdiction. Finally, this work performed a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to describe the logical relationship between the variables in terms of necessary and sufficient conditions for the occurrence of the phenomenon under study. Keywords: Latin America; institutional comparative analysis; Supreme Courts; jurisdictional privilege; empirical approach.

The effects of personal campaign financing on party defection: Evidence from Brazil

Scholars suggest that personalism in the electoral arena may reinforce legislators' autonomy from their political parties, increasing their chances of party defection. Our aim is to investigate the role of one fundamental factor that can strengthen personalism: the personal financial capacity to fund electoral campaigns. We seek to answer whether legislators who have more financial resources coming from either personal wealth or individual donations are more inclined to leave their parties during their terms. Through data from Brazilian federal deputies, we show using multivariate regression models that the share of personal resources (especially the share of resources coming from candidate's personal wealth) has positive effects on the chances of defection. Being part of the government coalition and the regulatory framework in place also influence the relationships at play.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS ABOUT THE PROPOSAL FOR REPEAL OF LAW No. 12.318/2010 (BILL No. 6371/2019)

This review article proposes to examine the justifications elaborated by the Bill (PL) nº. 6371/2019 in the light of doctrine and contemporary critical reflections. To this end, the specific comments made by Federal Deputy Iracema Portella are analyzed and with the support of several jurists (revised literature) in the highlighted points, the conclusion was reached to maintain - within the homeland Legal Order - of the Parental Alienation Law (non-repeal of Law Nº. 12,318/2010); observed the optimization and the quantitative and qualitative intensification of the expertise to the decision and the case-by-case verification.

Representing “The People”: What Can Social Media Images Reveal About Populist Propaganda in Brazil?

This study explores the visual content posted by far-right populist parliamentarians in Brazil, asking how “the people” are represented through imagery. Scholars have previously argued that populists have failed to foster the voice of “the people” in Latin America, but have they also failed to signify and cultivate an authentic visual representation of them? To answer this question, we collected the social media imagery posted by federal deputies of the 56th Legislature, a period characterized as one of illiberal backlash in Brazil. We employed visual analytics as a method of data analysis, demonstrating that clustering images according to their color similarities facilitates the study of key themes of populist communication, namely: the leader’s bodily performance, nationalism, the “enemy,” and “the people.” Besides this methodological contribution, our findings suggest that parliamentarians played a crucial role in enabling and sustaining far-right populist discourses. These politicians defined “the people” solely through the battles set in motion at the level of political affiliations. The voices of those claimed to be represented by them were diluted in visuals of mass demonstrations, which provided the primary occasion for their incorporation into populist communication.

A ironia como estratégia discursiva: vozes polifônicas em rede na disputa Lula x Bolsonaro em 2022

From Twitter posts by Federal Deputy André Janones and City Councilor Carlos Bol-sonaro, we seek an analysis of irony in political discourse on the internet during the 2022 elections in Brazil. Thus, the article aims to answer how this linguistic resource was employed in this field of intense narrative competition. The theoretical framework is based on Discourse Analysis (French school), particularly focusing on the concepts of polyphony and irony by Ducrot (1987). As a methodological approach, we employ conversation analysis (Liakopoulos, 2008). Accordingly, the study comprises a qualitative-quantitative research design, configuring itself as a case study (Yin, 2005), in the sense that it aids in understanding contemporary individual, organizational, social, and political phenomena. The episode that constitutes the focus of this study gained prominence in the news on October 24, 2022. It is concluded that the resource was strategically utilized, adapting rhetoric to the circumstances to keep in focus themes explored by the campaigns or to counter the monitoring of the digital field by the Superior Electoral Court. Simultaneously, compliance with the determination to exclude specific posts or comments issued by the court was observed.

Toxicity and discursive violence against women federal deputies on Twitter

Resumo O artigo discute como as plataformas de mídia social contribuem para a legitimação e o espalhamento do que chamamos de discursos tóxicos, particularmente no que diz respeito à violência de gênero contra mulheres na política brasileira. Nossa pesquisa busca compreender: (1) quais discursos emergem tendo como alvo as deputadas federais brasileiras (com mandatos entre 2019 e 2022) e seus possíveis efeitos; e (2) se há diferenças entre discursos tóxicos dirigidos às deputadas nos diferentes lados do espectro político-partidário. Para isso, analisamos 500 mil tweets publicados em junho de 2022 que mencionavam diretamente as deputadas no exercício do último mandato. Por meio de uma análise quali-quantitativa, identificamos duas grandes categorias de discursos tóxicos: um relacionado exclusivamente à figura da mulher, ou seja, à violência de gênero, e outro em relação ao grupo político do qual faz parte, ou seja, ataques de cunho político-partidário.

Responsiveness and parliamentary communication: about a study of Brazilian federal deputies

Resumo: Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar a relação entre atributos específicos de legisladores federais e seu grau de responsividade na comunicação com cidadãos por e-mail. Para tanto, foi levantado o perfil dos 125 deputados federais que participaram de um experimento, e testes de tabulações cruzadas foram adotados para averiguar a relação do nível de responsividade e as características dos parlamentares. Por repetição, observou-se um perfil responsivo: homem; em sua primeira gestão como deputado federal; com mais de 50 anos e ensino superior completo; vindo da região sudeste (mais especificamente de São Paulo); membro de um partido representativo na Câmara; e que defenda interesses empresariais, de parentes na Casa e sindicais. Conclui-se que o distanciamento entre a população e a Câmara se fortalece diante desse cenário, o que pode lesar a credibilidade da Câmara dos Deputados e da democracia.

Does the media influence the National Congress? A study of the perceptions of federal deputies in Brazil (2011-2014)

Resumo: O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar os determinantes da percepção dos deputados federais no Brasil sobre a influência que a mídia tem em suas opiniões e votos. Nosso referencial empírico são quatro rodadas de surveys presenciais aplicados a amostras representativas da Câmara dos Deputados entre 2011 e 2014. Ao todo, foram realizadas 954 entrevistas com parlamentares em exercício durante a 54a Legislatura. Os resultados mostram que o relato de maior influência está associado a hábitos midiáticos, a fatores político-ideológicos e a características sociodemográficas de cada parlamentar. Mais especificamente, registram maior influência da mídia os deputados federais que leem com maior frequência colunistas de política da mídia de referência nacional, os filiados a partidos de centro-direita e os novatos na Câmara. Por outro lado, identificamos menor influência da mídia entre os deputados que integram a bancada evangélica e entre os mais velhos. Nossos achados são compatíveis com as expectativas teóricas de que a mídia exerce influência sobre legisladores por meio de um efeito instrumental, compatível com a teoria de usos e gratificações.

O papel das fake news e insultos verbais na estratégia antipolítica da extrema direita brasileira

Abstract This paper, which is based on the polemical discourse perspective (Amossy, 2017), has two objectives, namely analyzing Fake News as a disinformation strategy used by the Brazilian Far Right, and investigating the resignification of verbal insults as a subaltern resistance tactic. Through Queer Linguistics (Borba, 2015), we suggest the conceptual distinction between “strategies” and “tactics” (Certeau, 2007), as well as “subaltern resignification” as a solution for the “Paradox of Tolerance” (Popper, 1974). Furthermore, we use semantic chains (Morais, 2018) to formalize the “architecture of disinformation” and the “architecture of information.” Our analysis is based on a few statements given by Bolsonarists in interviews, in the Federal Senate Committee and five tweets posted on former Federal Deputy Jean Wyllys’ official Twitter account. We conclude that linguistic expressions that reiterate situations of symbolic violence are the primary foundation for legitimizing physical and structural violence against LGBT people. Despite this fact, the controversial clash indicates the possibility of a tactical emergence of new political and social subjects who were previously subordinate.

Established, outsiders, and renovators politicians: measuring party loyalty among federal deputies elected in 2018

Resumo: Analisamos o perfil sociopolítico e o comportamento político em votações nominais dos deputados federais eleitos para a 56ª Legislatura (2019-2023). Os deputados foram divididos em três grupos: Estabelecidos (deputados que não estavam em primeiro mandato); Outsiders (deputados que estavam em primeiro mandato); e Renovadores (outsiders que eram membros de organizações suprapartidárias de renovação política). O objetivo foi verificar se havia diferenças significativas entre os grupos e se os Renovadores apresentaram peculiaridades no seu comportamento parlamentar. Os resultados mostraram que os grupos apresentam diferenças na idade, raça, ideologia partidária e no padrão de financiamento de campanha. Porém, através de análise de diferenças de médias, concluiu-se que não existe diferença entre a média dos índices de lealdade partidária dos parlamentares de cada grupo, sendo o comportamento dos deputados muito parecido entre si. O achado relativiza a pretensa novidade trazida na onda de renovação política em 2018 no Brasil.

O QUE É MESMO ENCAIXAMENTO EM LINGUÍSTICA SISTÊMICO-FUNCIONAL?

Este artigo objetiva expor como se constitui o encaixamento (HALLIDAY; MATTHIESSEN, 2004; 2014), mecanismo semogênico empregado para definir, delimitar ou especificar termos de uma oração ou mesmo funcionar como Núcleo de um grupo. Denominada oração relativa definidora, a oração encaixada pode funcionar como Pós-Modificador de um grupo nominal ou de um grupo adverbial, ou Núcleo de um grupo nominal. Os exemplos que acompanham esta exposição foram coletados de um corpus com 58 discursos de deputados federais em março de 2020, cujo tema é o Coronavírus no Brasil. Aplicada a ferramenta Voyant.tools, foi constatada a predominância de encaixamento por elaboração.

ARGUMENTATIVE TECHNIQUES

The article analyses, from the perspective of the dialogical theory-analysis of the discourse of the Bakhtin Circle, and the theory of argumentation of Chaim Pelremam, the opinion articles “Legalizing drugs” by federal deputy Jean Wyllys, published in the magazine Carta Capital and “Legalization of drugs” by Dom Odílo P. Scherer, cardinal-archbishop, published in the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo. The objective is to work on the opinion article genre, given that it has a strong argumentative nature, to analyze the aforementioned theories in order to enrich the theoretical debate on argumentative resources. We chose the topic Legalization of drugs because it is a controversial topic that involves several segments and social institutions in its discussion. In order to do so, the dialogic relationships established between the two authors as well as with other social institutions are analyzed, as well as the argumentative techniques used by both to support their points of view, based on the qualitative and interpretive approach of bibliographic research. It appears that the authors dialogue both with each other and with other voices, such as the Supreme Court of Argentina and the church, whether disagreeing or agreeing, in order to affirm their ideological positions when discussing the legalization of drugs. In our conclusive considerations, we highlight the responsive character of the statements, in which an article is constituted as a response to previous positions, while they are opposed, and we also highlight the presence, in both analyzed articles, of Pelremam’s argumentative techniques that were both the arguments based on the structure of the real and the arguments that found the structure of the real.