The reaction of the political incumbent elites in the Brazilian democratic opening

This paper examines one of the possible channels through which incumbent elites aligned with the Brazilian dictatorship were able to withhold their political power during the democratization in the 1980s. Based on national household survey data and results from legislative elections, we first find t...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Bruce, Raphael, Rocha, Rudi
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2015
País:Brasil
Recursos:EDITORA 34
Repositório:Revista de Economia Política
Idioma:português
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs2.centrodeeconomiapolitica.org:article/243
Acesso em linha:https://centrodeeconomiapolitica.org.br/repojs/index.php/journal/article/view/243
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:democratização
elites
oligarquia rural
democratization
rural oligarchy
Descrição
Resumo:This paper examines one of the possible channels through which incumbent elites aligned with the Brazilian dictatorship were able to withhold their political power during the democratization in the 1980s. Based on national household survey data and results from legislative elections, we first find that recently franchised illiterate voters who lived in states that were dominated by the elite party during the dictatorship had a higher probability to register to vote than those who lived in other states. We then investigate whether this positive correlation represents a reaction from the incumbent elites in order to keep their political power through voter manipulation or a reaction from these voters in order to remove the power from the oligarchies. We find that, in states dominated by the elite party, illiterates had higher probability of being politically uninterested and uninformed. Our results suggest that a politically motivated reaction from this population is implausible. JEL Classification: D72; D78; I25.