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This article analyzes the use of candidacies for higher political offices, not only as evidence of progressive ambition, but also as a source of electoral benefits for the candidate. The argument is that alternating elections for different level positions in the federative system permit that even candidates who lost in mayoral races to take advantage of campaign coverage later in the race for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. The hypothesis that this electoral return exists is tested by applying linear and maximum likelihood models on data from Brazilian federal deputy elections in 2010, taking into account their performance in 2006 and whether or not they ran for mayor in 2008. Results show that there are considerable late electoral benefits even for those who lost mayoral elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two main objectives. The first one is to create a profile of Senators' substitutes, compared to the elected Senators. The second objective is to investigate the substitutes' political performance, with the intent of evaluating the impact of their actions on both the functioning of the Senate and their relationship to the Executive Power. We suggest that, because they are not directly elected, they are selected to work on difficult tasks, especially those that could bring negative political effects to the Senators, which depend on the electorate's vote. We also found that the substitutes give a bit more support to the Presidency, particularly observed in right wing parties coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between elite behavior and mass preferences is in the essence of discussions about representative democracy. However, very little is known about who influences whom and how long it takes for such influence to be felt. This article presents results from a time-series dataset that allows us to verify the relationship between the mood of public opinion, presidents' choice of policy making instrument (extraordinary vs. ordinary legislation) and congressional support to presidents' policy initiatives in Brazil. We collected monthly observations of presidential popularity, patterns of roll-call voting in congress and presidents use of "medidas provisórias" as well as regular legislation. This dataset allows us to test, using time-series techniques, the impact of these variables on each other and the amount of lags it takes for these impacts to become significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses two main aspects about the Brazilian legislative at the local level: (1) the regional and national characteristics based on the social basis and the party links of local representatives in 1996, 2000 and 2004, and (2) the different views the local representatives and mayors conceive the local decision making process, especifically in the states of São Paulo and Santa Catarina. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]