Does Size Matter? Electoral Performance of Small Parties in Brazil

Brazilian Political Science Review

Endereço:
Avenida Professor Luciano Gualberto, 315 - Cidade Universitária
São Paulo / SP
Site: https://brazilianpoliticalsciencereview.org/
Telefone: (11) 3091-3780
ISSN: 19813821
Editor Chefe: Adrian Gurza Lavalle
Início Publicação: 31/12/2006
Periodicidade: Quadrimestral
Área de Estudo: Ciência política

Does Size Matter? Electoral Performance of Small Parties in Brazil

Ano: 2016 | Volume: 10 | Número: 2
Autores: Nascimento, Willber; Silva Jr, José Alexandre da; Paranhos, Ranulfo; Silva, Denisson; Figueiredo Filho, Dalson Britto
Autor Correspondente: Nascimento, Willber | [email protected]

Palavras-chave: Small parties; cluster analysis; electoral volatility; disproportionality

Resumos Cadastrados

Resumo Inglês:

What is the impact of small parties on electoral outcomes? This articles aims at contributing to the literature on party systems by proposing a new method to classify political parties. The methodology is applied to Brazil by focusing on the description of the election results of small parties. Cluster analysis is employed to classify political party size based on their percentage of votes in the Brazilian states. The main findings indicate that classifying parties through cluster analysis is more objective than previous classifications. As a result of this method, the article shows that small parties exert little effect on electoral volatility in Brazil as well as small parties benefit less from the disproportionality between votes and seats than the larger ones.