Clientelismo, cultura política e desigualdades sociais: tópicos do caso brasileiro após a redemocratização.

Abstract

The object of this dissertation is the clientelism in the Brazilian politician system, understood as an aspect of the political culture, that is, a set of codes, symbols and values orientation that guides the action of the social and political actors. In the study of such object, we assume the existence of a conjugation between the democratic institutionaldesign established by the Constitution of 1988 and the persistence of socioeconomic inequalities, in addition to the latters complex relations with the political culture. The methodology used on this work was of documentary research. Initially, we seek to define the concept of clientelism, mapping the pertinent literature. After that, by means of secondary data (some originating from the previous stage), we establish a critical dialogue considering the different meanings of the concept and their subsequent operationalization in empirical research. In a critical way, we seek to identify and interpellate the literature, confronting twoalternative interpretations of the phenomenon. The first one attributes a degree of inadmissible persistence to the inherently clientelísticos (clientelistic) aspects of the Brazilian political culture. The second one, centered in research of the new institutional spaces of extended participation, such as the Councils of Polices and the Participatory Budget, adopts, at times, a position opposed to the first one, attributing to such institutions the possibility to eliminate clientelism. It is concluded that both perspectives contain important elements toilluminate the several facets of the clientelism phenomenon in Brazil today, being possible to reduce extremisms (pessimism and optimism) and conjugate the contributions of each one so as to produce extended and consistent interpretations of the problem.