What do Voters Expect from their Federal Deputies?
What are the factors voters weigh more heavily when choosing a candidate for Federal Deputy? Do voters want their representatives to make national level policies or do they expect them to work for their localities of origin, investing federal monies at the municipal level? Does casework play an important role in vote choice? All of these questions are in the essence of voter/representative relation and in orienting the behavior of legislators once elected. The Brazilian system has been repeatedly characterized as one in which federal transfers to the municipality, arranged by Federal Deputies through budgetary amendments, plays a central role in incumbents’ electoral success. If these transfers are in fact to affect electoral success, as they seem they do, they must resonate with voters’ expectations. The 2002 Two City Panel Study, conducted by Barry Ames, Andrew Baker and Lucio Renno provides an answer to this question.
First, voters do want their incumbents to focus in transferring federal largess to the local and state level. In the pooled sample of both cities 34% of the respondents said the most important task of a Federal Deputy is to help the governor bring improvements to the state, 25% mentioned that defending the well-being of the country in Congress is more important, 23% said the most important task is to bring benefits to the municipality, 14% said that listening and helping voters, like helping find a job, is more important, finally, only 2% said that the most important task of a Federal Deputy is to be a leader in Congress, like a committee chair, rapporteur, etc. These percentages don’t vary much between the two cities studied.
What these results indicate is that voters want Federal Deputies to focus on the local level. They want their representatives to help improve quality of life in the cities and states they represent. In Brazil, a country with impressive infra-structure limitations and impoverished cities, federal monies are central to bringing development to municipalities. Federal Deputies play an important role in channeling these monies to localities that need it. Hence, the demand for concentrated benefits, in a country of prevailing scarcity, is as valid as any other demand. In sum, Federal Deputies, who are usually criticized for spending so much effort in approving and executing budgetary amendments, do so to respond to a clear demand by voters. Given that such money transfers are limited by law and closely regulated, they do not lead to fiscal irresponsibility. They do, in fact, satisfy a legitimate demand of voters.