Thus, in the political sphere, the desire for a reaction to the autocracy that marked the previous period prevailed, defined by an authoritarian government and a bipartisanship that, in practice, amounted to the dominance of a single party.
The result was an institutional arrangement in which the presidency of the republic was strong, but a minority in Congress . The variable that explains this dilemma is the electoral rule. While the president is elected by the national majority vote, congressmen compete in state electoral colleges, with the Chamber of Deputies elected by proportional vote and the Senate by majority vote.
With the implementation of proportional representation, political parties multiplied in the country and, therefore, misalignment in voting for the Executive and Legislative branches became common.
Those who voted for a party's presidential candidate often opted norway mobile database for parliamentary candidates from different parties, often with different ideological orientations. In this context, all Brazilian presidents began their terms without a majority in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and so the incentive for the formation of coalitions in Congress arose .
The first ten years of this political model were marked by doubts and criticisms about its functionality. The main points included the difficulty of coordinating so many competing interests in Congress to produce agreements and advance public policies.
It was also argued that the “different” votes for the president and members of parliament could create a problem of legitimacy. This situation would put the two branches of government in a stalemate , since there was no possibility of removing the president from office before the end of his term, except via impeachment, which is a politically costly solution.
Argelina Figueiredo and Fernando Limongi confronted these arguments with reality. In this endeavor, they showed that the performance of parliamentarians in Congress was, on average, in line with the president's preferences. As a result, between 1990 and 2010, more than 75% of all legislative proposals approved were initiated by the Executive.