Valores pessoais na política brasileira: diferenças partidárias e comportamento político nas câmaras municipais de Minas Gerais

Abstract

In a country with 5,570 municipalities, it is surprising that rare are the efforts to investigate the almost 60,000 local politicians from the municipal legislative houses. This thesis investigated the Refined Theory of Basic Individual Values by Schwartz (2012), which defines values as trans-situational goals, varying in importance, that serve as guiding principles for a person or a group. The theory describes and orders 19 of these values, assessed with a 57-items scale and checked for cultural equivalence and reliability using CFA and MDS analyses. Although there is evidence that values correlate to political orientation of voters (CAPRARA; VECHIONE et. al, 2006) and to voting behavior (CAPRARA, 2006; 2007), we aimed understanding if personal values also play a significant role in politicians’ behavior regarding two different outcomes: declared support to the mayor in office, and to party affiliations. It’s also hypothesized that differences in certain values between parties is not arbitrary, and since it follows a theoretical path it can also be statistically discerned. Responded to the survey 201 elected politicians from the state of Minas Gerais (21 million inhabitants, 853 municipalities and 8,435 city councilmen and councilwomen per last election in 2012), Brazil, from 79 different municipalities. The survey included the Portrait Values Questionnaire (57 items) and questions about relationship with the mayor, religion affiliation, military government, and others. We concluded values are a rich framework to understand local politics, with interesting results being achieved by this research alone. Yet, it is necessary to retest some of the hypotheses with a greater sample, since four of the 10 did not achieve the minimum parameter for statistical power. Regarding the six hypotheses with enough statistical power, we argued, for example, that politicians that prioritize Self-direction of Thought, and Stimulation will show less support for the local executive, controlling for party affiliation and belongingness to the mayor’s party. In general, results have shown that from 14% to 25,8% of the variance in the declared support for the mayor can be explained by the models developed. It is also argued that high priority towards Conservation values (i.e., Conformity-Interpersonal, Conformity-Rules, Tradition, Security-Personal, Security-Social) will lead to a lower probability of membership on left-wing parties - and, conversely, higher on right-wing parties. Implications for local politics are discussed.