Within the
modern democracies in the world, Brazil is a country that deserves special
attention. Currently Brazil is the fourth largest democracy in the world, and
has a fairly new stable democracy since 1988. With a governmental structure and
separation of powers inspired by the United States, Brazil has a Proportional
Representation (PR) system as its main difference. Due primordially to this
factor, Brazil has a multiparty system, with dozens of different parties. Currently,
there are 32 legal political parties that are in office either nationally or
locally. Additionally there are around 40 other parties that are waiting legal
approval. Therefore, soon Brazil can have more than 79 different parties. Even
with this high number, around 10 parties are effective at the lower and upper
house of the congress. One of the most influential is the Worker’s Party – the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT). This
party has the majority in both houses and it is the party of the current head
of state, Dilma Rousseff. In the past, political parties did not matter much in
Brazil. The country was traditionally used to being ruled by a single powerful
ruler. Initially democracy was very instable, with influential political
figures acquiring more power; however, since the end of the latest dictatorship,
political parties have been growing in their power. When analyzing the
government today, it is impossible to ignore the PT whereas the party is
infiltrated within almost all branches of the government, with the exception of
some southern local governments. Due to its increase in power in influence, the
PT has being the spotlight of latest news that involves mostly corruption scandals.
Lately the state-owned oil company, Petrobras,
a company that was facing a rapid growth, it is now passing through one of the
darkest times. When the presidential elections was coming closer, several
corruption schemes were revealed. Recently in an investigation called Operation Car Wash the company’s
executive leader, Mario Costa, was charged of corruption. After being arrested,
Mr. Costa agreed to cooperate and to divulge several other participants. The scandals
was then tied to PT as several of the named given by Mr. Costa were political
figures. Latest news tells that the PT party received around $ 200 million
bribe money from contracts with Petrobras.
In the
book The efficient Secret, Gary W.
Cox discusses the subject of the rise of political party power in the United
Kingdom, how they became such a dominant force. This topic was raised because
historically, political parties in the UK did not have much influence. Members
of Parliament (MP) individually used to be more influence, and voters voted
based more on their individual characteristics and ideals, rather then which
political party they belonged. However, the UK passed through several changes, especially
with the Reform Acts. These acts changed several constituencies and also expanded
political suffrage. With this shift constituencies started to care more about
issues. With this, MPs started to focus more on issues as well. Before, where
voters voted mainly in the candidate that they most liked, it was very easy for
MPs to bribe voters thus acquiring more votes for themselves. However, with
issues becoming more relevant, this became harder with time. Therefore MPs
started to loose individual power, and the cabinet started to increase its
power. Whosoever has the majority in the cabinet control it, thus political
parties started to become more relevant and powerful. Today voters even vote
for a political party as a whole, as well as individual candidates.
This
book helps us understand what is happening right now in Brazil. Comparing the
UK with Brazil, both countries are very different politically. Brazil is a
republic, with a presidential system, proportional representation electoral
system, and several different parties. However both countries passed through a
change in political party power. Like in the UK, individual candidates where
very powerful. This trend is still present today, much more than in the UK, especially
in poorer areas. However, nowadays the power of a political party as a whole in
increasing. Political suffrage expanded not much after the UK, but people only
started to really care about issues recently. After 21 of military dictatorship
that started in 1964, people started to fear individual power, and a higher
support for democracy started to grow. Political parties were the main result
of this, defending democracy and going against the dictatorship. The power of
parties have increased even further after the PT took presidential office in
2003. The party that is mainly left centered, started to grow its influence
everywhere. Today, even though there is no option to vote for an entire party,
people are starting to do so. The executive office is still more powerful then
the legislative, but this power have been decreasing. The “efficient secret”
that occurred in the last century in the UK, is happening now in Brazil. Unfortunately
the parties in Brazil are more corrupt, and are using their increase in power
to spread their influence and infiltrate themselves everywhere where there is
public money. It is now up to the Brazilian people to realize the power that
political parties have now, and perhaps make wiser choices during each
election.
Picture description:
1 - A Petrobras refinery;
2 - Dilma Rousseff (President of Brazil) drowning holding the Petrobras logo;
3 - Translation: Government, Distributor, Gas stations, me and you.
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