Electoral and Parties Dynamics in a Dictatorial Context: the relationship between political elites and the Brazil’s dictatorial regime (1965-1979)

Abstract

The perspective adopted here is that, in order to better understand the political and partisan rearrangements since 1979, the analysis of the relations among the military regimen, traditional political elites and the electorate is mandatory. The assumption of this article is that the fact that the Brazilian military regimen allowed (even with all the political persecution, cassações, arbitrary arrests, arbitrary electoral changes and all other intimidation forms) the maintenance of the electoral competition, allowed different political leaders to keep its respective electoral machines functioning uninterruptedly. Thus, the local electoral rivalries have been acting in an uninterrupted form since, at least, 1945 and continue acting after 1979. One concludes that the necessity of electoral support maintenance for the preservation of electoral machines explains (to a large extent), as much the electoral growth of the MDB, and the supposed electoral “weakness” of the ARENA, as evidences the military regimen loss of popularity.