Ex post performance of Brazilian deputies in foreign policy: Between critical issue perspective and the executive legislative relationship

Abstract

This paper intends to answer the following question: do the Brazilian federal deputies overlook the debates on foreign policy? To do so, we raise elements that allow the comprehension of the congressional interest on foreign policy, specifically on the processing of international acts. The analysis covers the period between 1988 and 2014, focusing on the Chamber of Deputies. We test two hypotheses: 1) the type of international act positively influences the parliamentary performance; 2) the deputies' performance has a positive effect on the likelihood of executive actions. Finally, it is clear that deputies act, on the one hand, according to the logic of the critical issue perspective and, on the other hand, constrained by the executive-legislative dynamics.