Brazilian Legislative Database - CEBRAP

This project aims to show the importance of two institutional variables – the legislative powers of the executive and the structure of legislative organization – in determining the pattern of relationship between the executive and the legislature and governmental performance. In accordance with the conventional wisdom in comparative studies it assumes the explanatory power of institutional variables, but it questions the dominant use in this literature of variables related to the form of government and the electoral and party systems. From the methodological point of view, the project aims to assess, as systematically and empirically based as possible, the effect of institutional agenda powers on the functioning of democratic systems.