A New Ideological Classification of Brazilian Political Parties

Abstract

Just as democratic politics changes, so does the perception about the parties out of which it is composed. This paper’s main purpose is to provide a new and updated ideological classification of Brazilian political parties. To do so, we applied a survey to political scientists in 2018, asking them to position each party on a left-right continuum and, additionally, to indicate their major goal: to pursue votes, government offices, or policy issues. Our findings indicate a centrifugal force acting upon the party system, pushing most parties to the right. Furthermore, we show a prevalence of patronage and clientelistic parties, which emphasize votes and offices rather than policy.