The Politics of Local Government, Left and Right: What Do They Stand for in Brazilian Cities and City-Regions?

Nelson Rojas Carvalho
Associated Professor, Universidade Federal Rural do Janeiro
Senior Researcher, Observatório das Metrópoles, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro

In the field of policy output analysis, early studies were overwhelmingly dominated by the disciplines of economics and sociology. Political science as a latecomer still neglected to produce research that relates parties, ideology, and public policy. And early output studies completely downplayed the role of political factors in the local policy outcomes, emphasizing socioeconomic factors instead.

In our research, we measure the weight both of demographic and political variables in policy outputs in Brazilian municipalities. More precisely, we look at the extent to which, at local level, political variables impact market regulation in the field of urban policies as well as policy decisions regarding minority groups and minority rights and democratic accountability.