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Brazil: The next 10 years
Fixing the political system
A sobering thought is that the structure and working of Brazil’s political system may be at least in part the reason why problems like corruption, crime, and economic dysfunction have not been resolved. Some argue that the essential problem is the system that has been described as “imperial presidentialism” or “coalition presidentialism”. According to this view the federal executive is excessively powerful. It has the ability to rule through what are known as provisional presidential decrees, (‘medidas provisorias’ or MPs) which have immediate effect and go to the top of the queue for congress to debate and approve. It also has wide powers to directly appoint officials to jobs, not just in central government but across the wider public sector. On the other hand, the political parties are deeply fragmented: in the latest elections no fewer than 30 won seats in congress. Of those, 16 have fewer than ten members of congress each. President-elect Bolsonaro’s party won less than 11% of the total seats in congress. According to Rogério Schmitt, a political scientist, “such a level of fragmentation is unseen in the world”.
