Parties and coalitions in the presidencies of Brazilian Senate committees (1995-2018)

Abstract

Interest for research on Brazilian legislative houses’ committee system has grown in recent years. This study seeks to contribute to this research agenda analyzing the profile of the parliamentarians who occupied the presidencies of the Senate’s permanent commissions based on their party and coalitional affiliation. The choice of presidencies is due to the key role this position plays in the legislative process: it is responsible for organizing the commission’s internal work and appointing the rapporteurs for the projects submitted to it. Party affiliation and government coalition will be analyzed, aiming to observe the differences in the occupation of presidencies by different coalitions. Thus, it is expected that the coalition seek to occupy mostly the presidencies of the most important committees (“CCJ” and “CAE”). Additionally, there would also be greater control of the coalition in committees through which projects on the government's priority agenda would be processed.