Political inequalities in Brazil: descriptive representation in the 2014 elections to the Chamber of Deputies

• Main Author: Augusto Neftali Corte de Oliveira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade Estadual de Londrina 2015-12-01
• Series: Mediações: Revista de Ciências Sociais
• Subjects: Representação Descritiva; Desigualdade; Câmara de Deputados; Eleição 2014.
• Online Access: http://www.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/mediacoes/article/view/22855

The descriptive representation proposes that Parliament must be formed as the image of the society. Using data of the 2014 federal election and the 2010 Census, this article exposes a deeply unequal structure in the access to political power in Brazil: women, black people, the less educated, workers and the poor are underrepresented in Chamber of Deputies. Both the opportunity to compete as the ability to be elected, the inequality of politics in Brazil poses a huge challenge to the political incorporation of social diversity in Parliament. What is the challenge of Brazilian democracy regarding the fair representation of the different? At the time when the notion of a crisis of representation is strengthened, is necessary rethink what is expected of democracy and how it can contribute to its original design, the equality between citizens.