Making Brazil Work: Checking the President in a Multiparty System PDF
Preview Making Brazil Work: Checking the President in a Multiparty System
Praise for Making Brazil Work “During the first decade or so after Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985, many observers were pessimistic about the country’s political institutions. The party system was too fragmented, the legislators too individualistic, the presidency a loose cannon on the ship of state. Yet Brazil’s multiparty presidentialism has delivered increasingly effective government. In this book, Melo and Pereira deliver the most comprehensive account to date of how that unexpected result came to pass. The authors’ deep knowl- edge of Brazilian politics is on display on every page, as are keen insights about the varieties of institutional arrangements that can sustain democracy.” —John Carey, John Wentworth Professor in the Social Science Department of Government, Dartmouth College “Marcus André Melo and Carlos Pereira provide a blueprint for researching the sources of institutional stability in multiparty presidential regimes. With theoretical breath and empirical care, they debunk old prejudices in regard to the functioning of the Brazilian democracy and prove that multiparty presidential regimes can pro- duce sound, stable, and predictable economic policy outcomes. As they conclusively prove, multiparty coalitions that difficult policy implementation can also be a source of policy stability and consensual change rather than a trigger of gridlock and execu- tive discretion. A brilliant reassessment of the political institutions that have made of Brazil a democratic economic power.” —Ernesto Calvo, Associate Professor of Government and Politics University of Maryland “This book is of interest to more than just Brazilian scholars or Latin Americanists. Brazil is a country with 26 states plus one federal district that experienced a severe financial crisis in the late 1990s. In its broader consideration of how the country’s political system functions, the authors explain how such a complicated set of interests and institutions can work together, and even work well. As the European Union struggles with how to deal with often-similar governance issues with 28 Member States after its own financial crisis, there are plenty of lessons this book provides from the Brazilian experience. The chapter on budgetary and auditing institutions, which provides a fantastic analysis of subnational level agencies and offers a parallel to debates about fiscal councils in the European context, is particularly good.” —Mark Hallerberg, Professor and Director of the Fiscal Governance Centre Hertie School of Governance “In ‘Making Brazil Work,’ Marcus André Melo and Carlos Pereira have produced a coherent and creative defense of Brazil’s political institutions. They carefully demon- strate that Brazil’s multiparty presidentialism is not inevitably prone to gridlock and corruption. On the one hand, the President’s extensive distributive powers (both jobs and pork) help maintain congressional support. On the other, a robust set of regula- tory institutions keeps corruption within manageable limits. In my view, the system works better when the left holds power, because the right has little ideological coher- ence and can easily be bought off. Only time will tell whether Brazil’s institutions will work as smoothly when the opposition is the more ideological and disciplined center-left, but Melo and Pereira have made a strong case for the functionality and creativity of Brazil’s system.” —Barry Ames, Andrew Mellon Professor of Comparative Politics University of Pittsburgh “Melo and Pereira decipher the paradox of Brazilian politics in a way that has impor- tant lessons for the study of young democracies generally. How is it that the consti- tutionally strongest presidents in Latin America are the least prone to the abuse of power? Why do legislators, for whom policy reforms are of only faint political inter- est, approve far-reaching reforms that promote economic growth? What explains the coexistence of strong and active oversight agencies and political deal-making that often relies on under-the-table transfers? These questions are salient in many coun- tries, but only now find answers in this penetrating book.” —Philip Keefer, Lead Economist, Development Research Group The World Bank “This book by Marcus André Melo and Carlos Pereira will rank among the major academic publications on contemporary Brazilian politics. Against the tenor of some classical comparative studies of democratic regimes, the authors show how coalitional presidentialism—the governing formula that is likely to emerge in countries that com- bine separation of powers with fragmented legislatures—has been able to generate effective governance and robust democratic practices in the South American giant since the promulgation of its 1988 Constitution. Key to this outcome is not only the deft use of the president’s toolbox—cabinet appointments, ideological pacts, decrees, and budget allocations—but also the presence of solid judicial and checks-and-balance institutions (for example, regulatory agencies and audit tribunals). Thus, Melo and Pereira are among the very few political scientists to systematically integrate the study of executive-legislative relations with the analysis of such institutions in Brazil—both at the national and subnational level. This outstanding scholarly achievement will be relevant to students of Latin American politics in particular and of democratic politi- cal institutions in general.” —Octavio Amorim Neto, Associate Professor of political science Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration, Getulio Vargas Foundation “Accountability in presidential democracies has been studied largely on the famil- iar terrain of executive-legislative relations, yet the map of accountability has never been fully unfolded. This book fundamentally widens the debate. Looking beyond Congress, Melo and Pereira successfully highlight a wide range of less visible institu- tions that have emplaced an authentic web of checks and balances within Brazilian democracy. Brazil has a powerful and proactive presidency, but one that must answer to numerous nonlegislative and nonpartisan actors.” —Timothy Power, Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in Politics University of Oxford STUDIES OF THE AMERICAS edited by Maxine Molyneux Institute of the Americas University College London Titles in this series include cross-disciplinary and comparative research on the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, particularly in the areas of politics, economics, history, anthropology, sociology, development, gender, social policy, and the environment. The series publishes edited collections, which allow exploration of a topic from several different disciplinary angles by eminent scholars, and book-length studies, which provide a deeper focus on a single topic. Titles in this series published by Palgrave Macmillan: Cuba’s Military 1990–2005: Revolutionary Soldiers during Counter-Revolutionary Times By Hal Klepak The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America Edited by Rachel Sieder, Line Schjolden, and Alan Angell Latin America: A New Interpretation By Laurence Whitehead Appropriation as Practice: Art and Identity in Argentina By Arnd Schneider America and Enlightenment Constitutionalism Edited by Gary L. McDowell and Johnathan O’Neill Vargas and Brazil: New Perspectives Edited by Jens R. Hentschke When Was Latin America Modern? Edited by Nicola Miller and Stephen Hart Debating Cuban Exceptionalism Edited by Bert Hoffman and Laurence Whitehead Caribbean Land and Development Revisited Edited by Jean Besson and Janet Momsen Cultures of the Lusophone Black Atlantic Edited by Nancy Priscilla Naro, Roger Sansi-Roca, and David H. 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Morgan and Philip John Davies Making Brazil Work: Checking the President in a Multiparty System By Marcus Andr é Melo and Carlos Pereira This page intentionally left blank Making Brazil Work Checking the President in a Multiparty System Marcus Andr é Melo and Carlos Pereira MAKING BRAZIL WORK Copyright © Marcus Andr é Melo and Carlos Pereira, 2013. All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–1–137–31083–5 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: August 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To Rosane, Bella, and Dani, com muito amor M. A. M To Ana Paula, Theo, and Tomas C. P.
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