Quem concorre ao legislativo municipal? Um retrato dos candidatos a vereador nas eleições de 2016 em Rio Grande – RS.

Abstract

This master thesis investigates the formation of political elites, with a particular focus on local legislatures. The research seeks to identify the social and political attributes of candidates who ran in the 2016 elections for the City Council of Rio Grande, at the Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. Moreover, a comparison between the attributes of elected and no-elected candidates is also performed. To pursue these goals, firstly, we trace the social profile of aspiring councilors through features such as sex, age, schooling, occupation and race. In order to understand party ties and political party experience, we present data showing the candidates' party membership time and the number of elections they have participated previously. Through semi-structured interviews with the 52 candidates, we attempt to identify their social background, associative links, and, personal and professional antecedents related to politics. From the thorough examination of the data, it is possible to conclude that the analyzed election have a greater diversity of profiles than the elections for state and federal legislatures, according to the reports in the related literature. In the analyzed election, we could observe the presence of candidates with less education and with more popular occupations. Furthermore, most candidates do not have strong ties to their parties nor experience in previous elections. Women, especially black women, youth are underrepresented in the dispute and, even more so, among the elect. Although there is a contingent of the elect with diversified profiles, and room for the election of newcomers, the majority of councilors are white, male, highly educated, linked to highly qualified professions or already holding a political office, has disputed less than one earlier election, and has an average party membership time higher than the other candidates. The interviews demonstrate that there are a series of experiences, qualities, and resources that drive the candidates’ candidacies. The dispute admits the presence of candidates without any previous experience. However, the elected, or those who manage to obtain a more significant number of votes, have trajectories of social or political engagement int the community.