INITIATIVES TO SUPPORT CANDIDATURES AND COLLECTIVE MANDATES AS FORMS OF REINVENTION OF INSTITUTIONAL POLITICAL PARTICIPATION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

In this article we addresses the challenges of occupying legislative institutional politics by historically marginalized groups in formal decision spaces. The hegemonic configuration of party politics in Brazil is discussed and some of the contemporary strategies of “hacking” institutional politics are mapped, bringing to the representational pole expressions previously considered only extra-representational, such as the direct and collective occupation of power spaces by new bodies, guidelines and struggles. Emphasis is placed on candidacy support initiatives and on the so-called collective mandates. It is argued that the experience of collective mandates has managed, so far, to crack some barriers, albeit timid ones. New studies on the subject may contribute to a better understanding of the concrete challenges faced by political groups that propose to make an effective “new” policy, against the vices that still make the “old” policy the hegemonic model in Brazil.