Associative/syndicate involvement and recruiting of political elites: Recent tendencies in Brasil

Abstract

Based on the confirmation of the continuous increase in the number of politicians who are active at the national level (federal representatives, senators and ministers) linked to some type of association or syndicate, we examine how this is related to the respective social trajectories and positions occupied within political space. For these purposes, we consider politicians linked to the associations and syndicates of urban and rural workers, of civil servants, university faculty and businessmen, for people who were elected to office between 1994 and 2003. Our main hypothesis refers to the increased use of associative capital that can be observed in conjunction with the intensification of electoral competition in the aftermath of the authoritarian regime; it suggests that electoral processes bring together a variety of resources and principles of legitimation and representation. Modes of reconverting associative capital into political resources and dynamics of electoral politics/ associative involvement relations are not seen as a consequence of some general principles but as part of specific configurations.