Brazil’s congress starts to reform itself
To clean up the sleazy political system will require a lot more work
BRAZILIAN election campaigns are costly affairs, featuring big rallies, glitzy television commercials and lavish leafleting. Presidential candidates criss-cross a country whose territory is bigger than that of the 28 members of the European Union combined. In 2014 candidates for the presidency, governorships, congress and state assemblies spent 5bn reais ($2bn). Undeclared donations, mostly from companies, may have been twice that.
Brazilians have learned through the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigations that companies expected favours from politicians in return. In 2015 the supreme court declared corporate contributions unconstitutional. This month Brazil’s discredited lawmakers came up with a scheme to replace them. It is part of a broader rewriting of political rules ahead of national elections due in October next year. The changes are worthwhile, but do not finish the job of reforming Brazil’s sleazy politics.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “Elections on a shoestring”
From the October 14th 2017 edition
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