Os estudos legislativos no Brasil e suas engrenagens analíticas : teoria, empiria e metodologia (2006-2015).

Abstract

Contemporary political science had a turning point in the construction of knowledge about political and social realities with the publication of King's, Keohane and Verba's (1994) Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. The authors undertake a greater systematicity to research designs in the various areas of social sciences. And they point to the construction of valid inferences as the main objective of scientific research. The discussions surrounding Designing Social Inquiry and the focus on constructing valid inferences have guided the creation of a broad methodological portfolio at the disposal of political scientists. This multifaceted range of inferential possibilities led Rezende (in press) to coined the term Inferential Pluralism "in which multiple logics of causation coexist for the production of valid inferences" (REZENDE, in press). The idea of Inferential Pluralism is the reflexive expression of the robust methodological menu at the disposal of researchers. Thus, the present work aims to investigate the theoretical, methodological and empirical foundations of the legislative studies in Brazil. The focus of the analysis will be the academic production on the Brazilian Legislative Branch, both at the national level and at the subnational level, elaborated in the last ten years (2006 to 2015). The study of academic production showed us the consolidation of two very specific areas within the field of research: Parliamentary Behavior and Executive / Legislative Relationship. The saliency of these areas is consistent with the consolidation of the Legislative studies in the national political science. The centrality of the new institutionalism of rational choice as the main framework is a reality. It was also possible to diagnose that some steps should be taken by the researchers in the search for inferential adjustment. In particular, three aspects deserve special mention: the most effective search for research designs based on the causal inferential, the increase in the integration between quantitative and qualitative methods and the focus on identification paradigms. Aspects that did not receive the attention of researchers.