Quem são e pelo que competem os pequenos partidos brasileiros

Abstract

More than 30 years since the end of the two-party system imposed by the military regime, the Brazilian party system has faced a number of challenges regarding its consolidation. Among these challenges is the phenomenon of the multiplication of parties, many of which have low visibility and little political relevance. The so-called small parties are the majority of parties in Brazil and have integrated its party system since the very beginning. However, they have not received much attention in Brazilian political science, being an object of study largely unknown. This dissertation seeks to take a first step to fill this gap by addressing 15 parties that fall into this category. Thus, the question that guides this study is descriptive in nature, it aims at defining small parties and identifying the characteristics that bring them together and the sources of distinction between them. Therefore, there are two main axes of analysis. The first aims at sorting the small parties in specific types that allow the understanding of its nature, providing analytical models of heuristic utility. The construction of these typologies mobilizes classical analytical categories in the literature. Once these typologies are set, the second axis addresses electoral performance of each type to understand how these groups of parties have fared in the competition for electoral positions in the country and points out the factors affecting the different degrees of success achieved by each group