Authors:

Mário Scheffer and Lígia Bahia

Abstract:

The Brazilian legislation regulates the financial donations from private sources to both majoritarian and proportional election candidates. Based on approaches found in the literature on the party-system structure and on the relationships between the Legislative and Executive, this study uses the categories political representation and interests to analyze the information on donating health insurance companies and the receiving candidacies. The donating health plan companies were duly identified, as well as the resources donated to candidates. Comparing these data allows an assessment of the health plan companies’ interests projected in the Legislative Power, but does not authorize the establishment of causal relationships between donors and the representatives’ performance. The presence in the electoral dispute of health plan companies from every region in the country and the tendency of donations to go to parties on the right of the political spectrum are the major findings of this paper.