Collective Candidacies: A New Form of Interaction between Social Movements and Political Parties

Abstract

This article analyzes collective candidacies based on the literature on the interaction between political parties and social movements. It asks: what are the characteristics of collective candidacies, of spokespersons and of those elected? What do they tell us about the interaction between social movements and political parties? It presents a database of 319 candidacies participating in the 2020 municipal elections and qualitative and quantitative analysis of the spokespersons’ profiles: gender, race, age, education, marital status, distribution in federal units, ties and organizational infrastructure of movements and parties, and campaign resources. Through the mutual fertilization between literatures, the article argues that collective candidacies present a new form of interaction between social movements and political parties, at the same time, it offers a detailed characterization of collective candidacies as a whole. The article also confronts some assumptions that relate collective candidacies exclusively to inclusion of marginalized groups, new activisms, and intersectional agendas.