The Dynamics of Public Security in the Legislative Agenda: saliency and policy positions of parties and politics in the Câmara dos Deputados between 1989 and 2022

Abstract

The article analyzes 3,171 legislative proposals (PLs) and constitutional amendments (PECs) about public security in the Câmara dos Deputados (CD) between 1989 and 2022. In dialogue with the literature on the use of legislative proposals as a source of political positions, we describe the saliency of public security and the policy positions of parties and parliamentarians in the CD. Through a content analysis of the full text of the PLs and PECs, we classify the policy positions of parties and parliamentarians regarding their scope (corporatist or public security policies) and their type (repressive, preventive, and/or protective). We observe an increase in the prominence of the issue in the CD, a relative decrease in repressive positions, an increase in proposals that combine repressive, protective, and preventive measures, and a cleavage between parties and between male and female parliamentarians regarding the prominence, scope, and type of proposals.