Democracia de laços: quem são e como agem os financiadores políticos mais influentes no Brasil.

Abstract

This doctoral thesis aimed to identify and understand the strategies of the most influential political donors in Brazilian general elections of 2010 and 2014. The social networks analysis method was chosen determine the influence perceived by means of network centrality measures, specially regarding corporate donors and political parties, in both elections. After the selection of the most influential donors, a few hypothesis were elaborated regarding its identity and its strategies, in particular these as follows: (i) the top influential corporate donors are important economic players; (ii) the top influential corporate donors are more cautious than the average donors, as they spread out their donations among competing candidates and parties; (iii) the top influential corporate donors are more assertive than the average donors, as they give larger shares of resources to winning candidates; and (iv) the parties have had growing influence between 2010 and 2014 and this influence varies according to the party label. The results obtained support these hypotheses, because (i) the top influential corporate donors of 2010 and 2014 were, in general, very well-positioned firms in the owner´s network, concentrated in specific economic sectors, such as construction and engineering and banking, many of them were frequently leaders of their sectors; (ii) the top influential corporate donors of 2010 and 2014 were up to 4 times more cautious than the others; (iii) the top influential corporate donors of 2010 and 2014 were up to 13% more assertive than the average donors in 2010 and 19% more assertive than the average donors in 2014; and (iv) the parties had a 52% growth in influence between 2010 and 2014 and PT, PMDB and PSDB reached the top influence measures. This thesis´ conclusion is that there might have been a way of transforming economic power into political power in Brazil, in 2010 and 2014, along with the risks of worsening inequality of influence amongst citizens. It is also suggested in the present work that measures can be taken to bring the pattern of political financing closer to the ideal of fair value of political freedoms, in addition to the forbiddance of the corporate financing of campigns.