Investimento eleitoral no brasil: Balanço da literatura (2001-2012) e agenda de pesquisa

Abstract

This article focuses on the literature on electoral investment in Brazil and it has two objectives: to present an inventory of this literature and to propose a research agenda on the subject. To reach these objectives, dozens of works published between 2001 and 2012 were submitted to a critical reading and compared to each other. These works were originally published under different formats, such as books, articles, doctoral theses, master's dissertations, research reports, and courseworks. First, this article argues that the literature on electoral investment can be divided into three streams: (i) one that deals with the relationship between electoral investment and electoral performance; (ii) one that focuses the relationship between electoral investment and the concession of benefits for investors and (iii) one that searches for the determinants of electoral investment. All streams' main findings are assembled in the paper. Second, this article offers some suggestions for the development of a research agenda on the theme, not only by discussing common challenges to the three literature streams, but also proposing new lines of investigation for each of them. Questions related to electoral investment are crucial for the improvement of Brazilian democracy. The first step to face these questions is to deeply understand them. This work aims to contribute to this step.