Coalition Building in Brazil

          In democratic systems like Brazil, where seats in the lower house of the national legislature are allocated proportionally, there are usually many political parties elected to govern. Because of this, none of them attains a majority in the legislature necessary to pass laws and form a cohesive government. In these systems, parties and interest groups generally band together to form coalitions. Two or three parties or groups usually ally together to form a bloc. These parties agree to vote support one another’s legislative priorities and vote for each other’s bills after unifying around a similar ideology or policy agenda. Golder gives a thorough analysis of the importance and influence of coalitions in the German political system by examining the possible coalitions that could have formed after the 2005 German elections in her article.

            Golder argues that the German electoral system makes it difficult for small parties to form coalitions against the largest parties and therefore led to the grand coalition between the CDU and SPD in 2005. In a similar manner, the Brazilian electoral system influences which coalitions form. For example, one of Brazil's most serious institutional challenges is "coalitional presidentialism", a system in which the president must form and govern over a multiparty coalition, which becomes more difficult the more parties are involved. There are more than eight political parties in the Brazilian legislature with more than 5 percent of the seats. Because of this, Brazil’s electoral system requires the president to do a lot of political bargaining in order to maintain a coalition.

Through the late 1990s and early 2000s, democracies in Latin America experienced a strong move to the left as socialist governments came to power. These governments nationalized industries, increased social spending, provided large benefits to workers, and implemented radical political agendas. This rise of the left was given the name of the “pink tide”. However, large-scale corruption scandals and economic decline greatly discredited these leftist governments. As the strength of these leftist parties has waned, conservative Brazilian parties have become more popular.

Brazil is one country that has experienced a shift to the right after the ebb of the pink tide. Since the 2014 elections, Brazil has been governed by the so-called “Bible, beef, and bullets” lobby. This coalition is made up of evangelical Christian politicians and interest groups, the farm lobby and conservative lawmakers determined to ease strict firearms controls. The farm lobby, backed by the booming agribusiness sector, won 42 percent of the seats in Brazil’s lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and one quarter of the seats in the Senate. Evangelical Christian lawmakers won a further 76 of the 513 seats in the Chamber of Deputies, greatly due to financial assistance from Brazil’s fast-growing Pentecostal churches. The ideological alliance between the evangelicals, farmers, and gun lobby is made up of lawmakers from many different political parties. However, these lawmakers chose to ally with one another to form a coalition because they vote similarly on social and economic issues. These groups consistently opposed the advance of gay rights and reproductive rights for women. They united together with a common goal to pass conservative legislation. Now they want to restrict gay rights and abortion, lower the age of criminal responsibility and advance farmers’ interests in conflicts with Indian tribes.

These three groups agreed to support Michel Temer’s presidency in exchange for the executive branch’s support in achieving these policy goals despite his possible implication in the Petrobras corruption scandal that brought about the impeachment of his predecessor, Dilma Rousseff. It seems that the coalitions efforts to achieve these policy objectives are succeeding. Bills to relax Brazil’s strict gun laws, reduce the age of criminal responsibility to 16 years old, and ban abortion even in cases of rape are passing in Brazil’s lower house. Furthermore, a bill to undo key parts of Brazil’s 2003 Disarmament Law, which was praised as a key step toward containing crime and robbery in cities was passed in committee last year.

A spokesman for President Temer’s government said that his cabinet voiced its support for most of the Bible, beef, and bullet’s lobby’s agenda. In a further move to consolidate his support among members of this coalition, President Temer appointed Blairo Maggi as Minister of Agriculture. Maggi is the owner of the Brazilian company Ammagi Group, the world’s largest soybean producer.

Although the Bible, beef, and bullets coalition in currently ruling Brazil, President Temer faces the difficult prospect of keeping the coalition together. Some members of the coalition are beginning to oppose his presidency because of the strong evidence that he was involved in the Petrobras scandal. Some also argue that his efforts to bring about economic reform and end the current crisis is not working. Temer barely survived a vote in the lower house to put him on trial for corruption charges.

In conclusion, the large number of parties in the Brazilian political system causes the Brazilian president to have difficulty controlling the governing coalitions. The decreasing popularity of the leftist parties in Latin America has also caused conservative parties to rise and allowed for the formation of the Bible, beef, and bullets lobby. Only time will tell if President Temer can maintain this coalition and keep his party in control of the presidency.