THE political reform it is a series of measures and legal amendments to transform the electoral and political system in order to correct flaws, inequalities or distortions promoted over time. The objective is also to combat existing problems in the political party electoral milieu, such as the corruption.
There is a wide debate on how and if there should be a political reform in Brazil, since it involves numerous themes and, depending on the way in which happen, it may expand or reduce democracy and the participation of the population in the election process and in the decision-making spaces of sovereignty national.
Among the main topics, the issue of campaign finance. Currently, applications are financed by public and private funds, that is, both the State and individuals and legal entities can contribute to raise funds in the campaign of a party and a particular candidate.
The proposal is for the political reform to end this prerogative, establishing only public campaign financing, with a ceiling to be defined and which would be the same for all parties. Thus, the idea is to avoid multimillion-dollar campaigns, which, in theory, goes against the interests of democracy, given that better-financed candidates have greater chances in elections.
Another controversial point is what refers to the party coalitions. Many claim that they are a problem, as they benefit small parties that, in theory, only exist to claim positions in campaigns and party management larger, in addition to unequal TV time, given that campaign time is distributed to each candidate by the number of parties in their coalition.
Among the proposals are: the end of coalitions, which is not a consensus; the distribution of TV campaign time by candidate rather than by party; the limit of parties per coalition; among others.
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Added to these themes is the issue of proportionality of votes. Today, federal and state deputies, in addition to councilors, are elected by the largest number of votes and also by the vote of subtitles. Thus, parties that have, in the final sum, more votes, are entitled to more seats, which contributes to less voted candidates being elected to the detriment of more voted candidates.
There are several proposals for change. One of them is the district vote, which would divide the deputies by district and the deputies would be elected in each one of them by direct majority. This idea criticizes the fact that parties and deputies with more income are more easily elected, which makes them represent only the elites (and a reduced portion of the population of their respective districts). Another idea is the vote on list, in which the elected would only vote for the acronyms and these would choose their candidates (which would be done before the elections).
O end of secret ballot in the chamber and in the senate, it is also present in debates on political reform. In cases of revocation of mandates, parliamentarians vote for revocation or not in a secret list, which, of on the one hand, it defends the voter from internal political pressures, but, on the other, it avoids transparency towards the population. The proposal is to end the secret ballot in sessions to cancel mandates.
These are the main points, the ones that generate the most debates and the greatest controversies. However, there are other points that can also be part of a possible political reform, such as the end mandatory voting, the prohibition of re-election, the permission of a number of candidates without parties, among others.
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* Image credits: gary yim / Shutterstock
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PENA, Rodolfo F. Alves. "What is Political Reform?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/geografia/o-que-e-reforma-politica.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.