O Brasil na perspectiva do Projeto Variedades da Democracia

Abstract

In this article we present results for Brazil collected by the Varieties of Democracy project. We describe the historical evolution of democracy in Brazil from 1900 to 2012, focusing on its five main components (electoral, liberal, participatory, deliberative, and egalitarian), and on two adjacent dimensions of the regime (corruption and political parties). Lastly, we compare the data for Brazil with similar results for other South American countries. The results suggest: a. that a “spiral” trajectory has characterized Brazilian political regimes, in which new democratic experiences are always more democratic in all dimensions than previous ones; b. that the contemporary democratic experience combines positive results obtained in the electoral, liberal, and deliberative components of democracy, with less positive results observed in the egalitarian, and participatory components of democracy, as well as in its adjacent dimensions.