Book ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF BRAZILIAN POLITICS (Editor: Barry Ames)

Author:

Manoel Leonardo Santos

Abstract:

This chapter describes the structure and action of organized interests in the Brazilian political system. I trace the complex process of interest articulation, focusing on the period after the Constitution of 1988. Brazilian interest groups were initially regulated as a corporatist model, but the system has been changing into a hybrid system that retains structures of corporatism but coexists with a growing pluralism. Following the introduction, I describe the most active interest groups in the country, looking at organizations of the corporatist system, inherently pluralistic entities, social movements, and new forms of representation. I then discuss the goals, arenas, and strategies of lobbying in Brazil, considering the interests acting in the parliament and the executive together with the regulatory agencies and the judiciary. In the last section, I describe the institutional changes in the context of the current political and economic crisis, raising hypotheses about the consequences of these changes for interest representation in Brazil. Three recent changes are the most relevant: the labor reform of 2017, the ending of campaign financing by companies in 2015, and the current regulation of lobbying.