Brazilian Political Careers: State Assemblies in comparative perspective

As a young democracy, the twentieth century in Brazil was marked by alternance between democratic and authoritarian periods. During the First Republic (1889-1930) the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais led the first Republican and Federal experience. The Revolution of 1930 put Getúlio Vargas in the presidency and the new government increasingly constrained the regional elites; particularly, in the civil dictatorship “Estado Novo” (1937-1945) when the federal power was strongly centralized and weakened regional groups. After 15 years of Vargas era, with the democratization in 1945 regular elections returned, and the Constitution of 1946 established a more balanced Federalism. The brief moment of 1945-1964 is known as the first democratic period that ended with a coup d’état in 1964 that culminated with the military dictatorship (1964-1988). The research about the democracy from 1945 to date has tended to focus on the National Congress rather than the state’s Assemblies. The subnational legislative perspective is still largely unknown, which is relevant because state-based politics influence Brazilian national politics. What is the state parliament role in the career pattern? Is the state Assembly its own arena or stepping-stone to other positions? The democracy of 1945-1964 was an interesting legislative experience when the states increased their administrative and legislative autonomy; the Constitution of 1946 did not limit the parliamentary initiative and the executive and legislative competed for the same state competencies. In contrast, in the military regime, the legislative Assemblies had restricted legislative competencies, and some of these limitations are still present in the democratic Constitution of 1988. Due to the fact of wider legislative autonomy, this proposal investigates seven state Assemblies (Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Ceará e Goiás). The objective is to analyse the trajectory of 1.118 state legislators from 4 legislatures (1947-1963) from the first to the last office held, considering elective and non-elective positions at local, regional, and federal levels. The approach to empirical research adopted consists in seeking career patterns of assembly members. Furthermore, the number of state legislative mandates per politician was considered and the percentage of newly elected members as well. The findings of this study suggest that political professionalization from the states had different patterns and the Assemblies were a springboard in the political career for both the state and municipal executive offices and to federal legislative. This is the first study to undertake a comparative analysis of state parliamentary career about 1945-1964. Conduct research about states is justified by the relevance of these unities as political actors. In the Brazilian multi-level system, the subnational units are relevant to structure political careers and comparing states is an interpretative model to boost knowledge about the whole national politics.