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IFES - Brazil

Brazil

Since the end of military rule in 1985, Brazil has undertaken numerous political reforms on its path towards democratic consolidation. Elections have become increasingly free and fair as judged by international standards, and the 2002 election resulted in the ascendance of the main opposition party, the Worker’s Party.

However, obstacles still remain to the continued development of Brazilian democracy, including a relatively weak political party system characterized by frequent switches between parties. The recent scandal involving the ruling Worker’s Party is an indication of the seriousness of the issue.

Past Projects

Political Reform Project (2005)

IFES partnered with the International Republican Institute (IRI) to put on a three-day conference in Brasilia, Brazil (9-11 August 2005), to discuss the political reform initiatives that are currently before the Brazilian Congress. Issues addressed include the adulteration of electoral results by multiparty alliances in legislative elections, the weakening of political parties by extremely personalized voting, the mounting cost of electoral campaigns, candidate dependence on special interest money for campaign financing, an excessively fragmented party system, and an intense party switching (causing party caucuses to change in size within a legislative session). The conference included representatives from Brazilian political parties, media, civil society, universities and other key actors and addressed thresholds, open versus closed list systems, public campaign and party financing, and party federations. Specifically, IFES brought two experts in political finance, Delia Ferreira and Jeffrey Carlson, to participate in and present at the conference. The topics of their presentations were "Campaign Finance: Public vs. Private Funding" and "Regulating Money in Politics: the Role of Disclosure," respectively.