“Political affairs”: brokerage relationships between state representatives and local politicians in Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, politicians at different levels cooperate to achieve electoral and governing goals. Recently, these relationships have come to be analyzed through theories of brokers developed in comparative politics. This article investigates the micro-foundations of alliances between state representatives and local politicians and asks to what extent those theories are adequate to analyze these relationships in Brazil. Our analysis combines data from surveys with state representatives and interviews with advisors and focuses on how alliances are built, maintained, and broken. We show that mayors and city councilors are important brokers for state representatives. However, the fact that legislators and local brokers do not hold static positions and play dual roles underscores the limits of principal-agent theories to describe and analyze these relationships. Based on our conclusions, we suggest pathways to advance our understanding of the dynamics of interest intermediation and the multilevel connections between political actors.