HOW DIFFERENT IS THE BRAZILIAN POLITICAL SYSTEM? A COMPARATIVE STUDY

: This paper provides an up-to-date comparison of Brazil’s political system with that of 33 other democracies. We show that Brazil is an outlier with respect to the number of effective parties, the total government budget allocated to the legislative power, and the public funds allocated to parties (to fund campaigns and regular party operations). Brazil is also unique in its electoral management body: it is the only country in our sample in which the judiciary both organizes and oversees the electoral process. We also find a positive correlation between total public funding and the total number of effective parties.