WHEELING, DEALING, STEALING AND APPEALING: BASES OF MOTIVATION IN THE BRAZILIAN CONGRESS

This paper begins with a puzzle. Brazil's legislature ought to be active. The system is presidential; the electoral system is decentralized and candidate-centered; interest groups are well-organized and tunctionally specific; the executive is relatively open; committees are permanent and parallel the structure of the executive; parties are numerous. Such conditions all imply a busy legislature, and indeed, in the budgetary process the legislature is quite active. But on issues of national scope Brazil's Congress has accomplished little. Legislative weakness can have three causes: excessive parties, procedural roadblocks, and an excess of members with little interest on broad legislation. The party system merits investigation, but fewer parties participated in the equally unsuccessful democracy of 1946-1964. Moreover, it is unclear how many parties qualify as "dangerous excess. " Procedures also matter