Pork for Policy: Executive and Legislative Exchange in Brazil
58 Pages Posted: 31 May 2005 Last revised: 26 Oct 2022
There are 2 versions of this paper
Pork for Policy: Executive and Legislative Exchange in Brazil
Date Written: April 2005
Abstract
The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 gave relatively strong powers to the President. We model and test Executive-Legislative relations in Brazil and demonstrate that Presidents have used pork as a political currency to exchange for votes on policy reforms. In particular Presidents Cardoso and Lula have used pork to exchange for amendments to the Constitution. Without policy reforms Brazil would have had greater difficulty meeting their debt obligations. The logic for the exchange of pork for policy reform is that Presidents typically have greater electoral incentives than members of Congress to care about economic growth, economic opportunity, income equality and price stabilization. Members of Congress generally care more about redistributing gains to their constituents. Given the differences in preferences and the relative powers of each, the Legislative and Executive benefit by exploiting the gains from trade.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
By Lee J. Alston, Bernardo Mueller, ...
-
Pork for Policy: Executive and Legislative Exchange in Brazil
By Lee J. Alston and Bernardo Mueller
-
Agenda Power in Brazil's Camara Dos Deputados, 1989-98
By Gary W. Cox, Mathew D. Mccubbins, ...
-
By Lee J. Alston, Gary D. Libecap, ...
-
Forest Cover Change in Space and Time: Combining the Von Thunen and Forest Transition Theories
-
Land Reform as a Counterinsurgency Policy: Evidence from Colombia
By Michael Albertus and Oliver Kaplan
-
Buy, Lobby or Sue: Interest Groups' Participation in Policy Making - a Selective Survey
By Pablo T. Spiller and Sanny Liao
-
By Lee J. Alston, Edwyna Harris, ...
-
Property Rights, Land Conflict and Tenancy in Brazil
By Lee J. Alston and Bernardo Mueller
-
The Executive Toolbox: Building Legislative Support in a Multiparty Presidential Regime
By Eric D. Raile, Carlos Pereira, ...