{"id":64541,"date":"2015-10-05T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T11:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=64541"},"modified":"2015-10-01T18:42:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-01T17:42:08","slug":"electoral-revolution-in-brazil-aimed-at-neutralising-corporate-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/10\/electoral-revolution-in-brazil-aimed-at-neutralising-corporate-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"Electoral Revolution in Brazil Aimed at Neutralising Corporate Influence"},"content":{"rendered":"

29 Sep 2015 – <\/em>From now on, elections in Brazil will be more democratic, without corporate interference, which had become decisive and corruptive. A\u00a0September\u00a017 Supreme Court ruling declared unconstitutional articles of the elections act that allow corporate donations to election campaigns.<\/p>\n

The 8-3 verdict came in response to a legal challenge brought by the Brazilian Bar Association<\/a> (OAB) against the laws authorising and regulating donations by big corporations to political parties and candidates.<\/p>\n

\"Brazil\u2019s<\/a>

Brazil\u2019s Supreme Court during the Sep. 17 reading of the landmark ruling which declared that laws allowing corporate donations to election campaigns are unconstitutional. Credit: STF | Source: IPS<\/p><\/div>\n

In its challenge to the constitutionality of the elections act articles in question, the OAB argued that they violate the democratic principle \u2013 the backbone of the 1988 constitution \u2013 which established that all citizens are political equals, with each individual vote carrying the same weight.<\/p>\n

The verdict also stated that corporate financing runs counter to the first article of the constitution, which establishes that the political representatives elected by the people must serve the public good and that there must be a strict separation between the public and private spheres.<\/p>\n

Citing academic studies, the OAB further asserted that corporate donations transfer economic inequality to the political sphere, negating democracy and tending towards a \u201cplutocracy\u201d or government by the rich.<\/p>\n

\"Brazil,<\/a>

Brazil, political map. www.aridocean.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Campaign donations from corporations give them undue influence over politics by putting candidates in their debt, bound to defend \u201cthe economic interests of their donors in the drafting of legislation, the design and execution of the budget, administrative regulation, public tenders and public procurement,\u201d the OAB added.<\/p>\n

Corruption is also a major factor in this promiscuous relationship between money and politics. And campaign financing is almost always an element present in political scandals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe legal door of donations was closed and the illegal route has become more difficult, after the scandals, imprisonment, and disqualification of many of the people implicated in the corruption, but they will look for loopholes in the law.\u201d \u2014 Fernando Lattman-Weltman<\/em><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s big scandal, which decisively influenced the Supreme Court ruling, involves a kickback scheme in the state-owned oil firm Petrobras, which suffered at least six billion dollars in losses from graft and overvalued assets.<\/p>\n

More than 30 politicians have been accused of receiving bribes from large construction and engineering firms in return for inflated contracts, and part of the funds allegedly financed candidates and political parties in election campaigns.<\/p>\n

The ban on corporate donations will also lead to a reduction in gender imbalances in politic<\/a>s, sociologist Clara Araujo at the Rio de Janeiro State University<\/a> (UERJ) told IPS.<\/p>\n

Female candidates receive little campaign funding from their parties, but they are given larger proportions of donations from individuals than from companies, the opposite of male candidates, she said, based on the study \u201cWomen in the 2010 Elections\u201d<\/a>, which she co-authored, and on figures from 2014.<\/p>\n

As a result of discrimination by political parties, reflected by underfunding and less advertising time, especially on TV, women are underrepresented in Congress, where they hold only 10 percent of seats in the lower house and 13.6 percent in the Senate, although they make up 52 percent of voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court judgment is good news in the midst of the chaos of Brazil\u2019s political crisis,\u201d because it brings new balance to a game that was unfavourable to women, Guacira de Oliveira, one of the directors of the Feminist Centre of Studies and Advice<\/a> (CFEMEA), told IPS.<\/p>\n

But it has come at a moment of great uncertainty, when the crisis tends to have a greater impact on progressive political currents, and it will not change the rules that maintain inequality within and between the political parties.<\/p>\n

Public resources, such as the official Party Fund, and radio and TV time for candidates will continue to benefit the big parties, since they are distributed proportionally to the number of seats held by each party, Oliveira lamented.<\/p>\n

Only in-depth political reforms, called for by civil society organisations, could effectively democratise the election process. But the current legislature, where conservative lawmakers are a majority, would never approve that.<\/p>\n

Far-reaching political reforms would require a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution \u2013 which may become a possibility if the crisis gets worse.<\/p>\n

But without corporate donations, \u201ccampaigns will suffer a sharp drop in funding, which means candidates and parties will have to cut costs. Internet and the social networks, which already had a growing participation in the elections, will become much more important,\u201d said Fernando Lattman-Weltman, a professor of politics at the UERJ.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut money will seek other ways to influence politics,\u201d he added. \u201cThe legal door of donations was closed and the illegal route has become more difficult, after the scandals, imprisonment, and disqualification of many of the people implicated in the corruption, but they will look for loopholes in the law,\u201d he told IPS.<\/p>\n

Election campaigns have become expensive in Brazil in the last two decades, with the intense use of advertising techniques. Media advisers have become indispensable, and more and more costly to hire. Some have become celebrities, whose fame has transcended national borders.<\/p>\n

After their triumphs in Brazil, they have been hired for tens of millions of dollars to head campaigns in other countries of Latin America, or in Africa.<\/p>\n

Large campaign teams specialising in working the airwaves and the press have turned election campaigns into a media war between well-paid armies of advisers, following the U.S. model, with ongoing qualitative surveys providing guidance for speeches, slogans and TV ads and appearances.<\/p>\n

Now candidates will have to return to the basics: personal speeches, direct public relations, street rallies and armies of volunteers, said Lattman-Weltman.<\/p>\n

Without resources to produce and broadcast sophisticated ads, \u201ccandidates will try to seduce the media, trying to make them more biased and identified with specific parties,\u201d like in the United States, he said, referring to dangerous side-effects of the new scenario.<\/p>\n

Generating new political developments and creativity in campaigns will also become more important factors, he said.<\/p>\n

Without the millions of dollars in donations from companies, the game will be less unequal, but candidates who already have power and are well-known by the public, like legislators, governors or other political leaders, will enjoy a big advantage over new candidates, Oliveira said.<\/p>\n

That is a disadvantage faced by women in general, who began to participate in elections more recently, and who make up a small minority in the executive and legislative branches \u2013 even though one woman, Dilma Rousseff, has been president of this country of 202 million people since 2011.<\/p>\n

Celebrities like TV hosts, actors and footballers, along with prominent trade unionists and social activists, will likely be the most sought-after by the parties.<\/p>\n

The next elections, for mayors and city councilors in Brazil\u2019s 5,570 municipalities, will be a test of how campaigns will work without legal and illegal donations from the big sponsors, especially in big cities like S\u00e3o Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Statistics from the Superior Electoral Court from 2010 and 2014, when presidential, state and legislative elections were held, point to \u201ca strong correlation between the amount of spending and victory,\u201d said Araujo.<\/p>\n

So without a right to vote, companies had become a decisive factor in elections. In other words, \u201cthe big voter was money,\u201d said Claudio Weber Abramo, director of the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency Brazil, in a statement reflected by the OAB in its successful legal challenge that led the Supreme Court to put an end to elections dominated by corporate financing.<\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Mario Osava has been an <\/em>IPS correspondent since 1978, first from Portugal, then from Brazil starting in 1980. He has covered events and processes all throughout Brazil and has recently been engaged in covering major infrastructural projects that reflect opportunities for development and South American integration.<\/em><\/p>\n

Mario Osava\u2019s article was published in IPS<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 human-wrongs-watch.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Sep 2015 – From now on, elections in Brazil will be more democratic, without corporate interference, which had become decisive and corruptive. A September 17 Supreme Court ruling declared unconstitutional articles of the elections act that allow corporate donations to election campaigns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}