POLITICAL-PARTIES IN THE BRAZILIAN HOUSE- OF-REPRESENTATIVES - 1989-1994

The Brazilian and international literature has stressed the weakness o f the Brazilian party system, supposedly made up of parties with no id eological consistency who are incapable of controlling their own membe rs. Based on voting head counts in the House of Representatives from 1 989 to 1994, the study shows that the previous literature is not in ke eping with the facts. Behavior of political parties in the votes studi ed follows clear ideological patterns. In addition, the parties displa y a degree of political cohesion that is sufficient to make the result s of such votes predictable. Variations usually employed to explain pa rty cohesion are absent in Brazil. We thus suggest that the legislatur e's own organizational variables explain the results observed.