Table Of ContentPraise 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
I nstitute 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. Treece
Democratization, Development, and Legality: Chile, 1831–1973
By Julio Faundez
The Hispanic World and American Intellectual Life, 1820–1880
By Iv á n Jaksi(cid:176)
The Role of Mexico’s Plural i n Latin American Literary and Political
Culture: From Tlatelolco to the “Philanthropic Ogre”
By John King
Faith and Impiety in Revolutionary Mexico
Edited by Matthew Butler
Reinventing Modernity in Latin America: Intellectuals Imagine the Future,
1900–1930
By Nicola Miller
The Republican Party and Immigration Politics: From Proposition 187 to
George W. Bush
By Andrew Wroe
The Political Economy of Hemispheric Integration: Responding to Globalization in the
Americas
Edited by Diego S á nchez-Ancochea and Kenneth C. Shadlen
Ronald Reagan and the 1980s: Perceptions, Policies, Legacies
Edited by Cheryl Hudson and Gareth Davies
Wellbeing and Development in Peru: Local and Universal Views Confronted
Edited by James Copestake
The Federal Nation: Perspectives on American Federalism
Edited by Iwan W. Morgan and Philip J. Davies
Base Colonies in the Western Hemisphere, 1940–1967
By Steven High
Beyond Neoliberalism in Latin America? Societies and Politics at the Crossroads
Edited by John Burdick, Philip Oxhorn, and Kenneth M. Roberts
Visual Synergies in Fiction and Documentary Film from Latin America
Edited by Miriam Haddu and Joanna Page
Cuban Medical Internationalism: Origins, Evolution, and Goals
By John M. Kirk and H. Michael Erisman
Governance after Neoliberalism in Latin America
Edited by Jean Grugel and P í a Riggirozzi
Modern Poetics and Hemispheric American Cultural Studies
By Justin Read
Youth Violence in Latin America: Gangs and Juvenile Justice in Perspective
Edited by Gareth A. Jones and Dennis Rodgers
The Origins of Mercosur
By Gian Luca Gardini
Belize’s Independence & Decolonization in Latin America: Guatemala,
Britain, and the UN
By Assad Shoman
Post-Colonial Trinidad: An Ethnographic Journal
By Colin Clarke and Gillian Clarke
The Nitrate King: A Biography of “Colonel” John Thomas North
By William Edmundson
Negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas
By Zuleika Arashiro
History and Language in the Andes
Edited by Paul Heggarty and Adrian J. Pearce
Cross-Border Migration among Latin Americans:
European Perspectives and Beyond
Edited by Cathy McIlwaine
Native American Adoption, Captivity, and Slavery in Changing Contexts
Edited by Max Carocci and Stephanie Pratt
Struggle for Power in Post-Independence Colombia and Venezuela
By Matthew Brown
Taxation and Society in Twentieth-Century Argentina
By Jos é Antonio Sá nchez Romá n
Mexico’s Struggle for Public Security: Organized Crime and State Responses
Edited by George Philip and Susana Berruecos
Ra ú l Castro and Cuba: A Military Story
By Hal Klepak
New Political Spaces in Latin American Natural Resource Governance
Edited by Hå vard Haarstad
Politics and Power in Haiti
Edited by Kate Quinn and Paul Sutton
Citizenship and Political Violence in Peru: An Andean Town, 1870s-1970s
By Fiona Wilson
Aesthetics and Politics in the Mexican Film Industry
By Misha MacLaird
Reconfiguring the Union: Civil War Transformations
Edited by Iwan W. 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 André Melo
and
Carlos Pereira
MAKING BRAZIL WORK
Copyright © Marcus Andr é Melo and Carlos Pereira, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-31083-5
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 978-1-349-45674-1 ISBN 978-1-137-31084-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137310842
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.
