Legislative Oversight of Brazilian Foreign Policy: An Analysis of Requests for Information and Summonses to Ministers, 1991-2014

Alexandre Spohr

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil; alexandre.spohr@gmail.com. ORCID iD 0000-0002-3064-3520.

André Luiz Reis da Silva

Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre-RS, Brazil; reisdasilva@hotmail.com. ORCID iD 0000-0003-2593-1189.

Alexandre Piffero Spohr is a PhD student in Political Science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in Brazil. He holds a Master’s Degree in Political Science, and a Bachelor Degree in International Relations. He researches Brazilian foreign policy analysis and development. His research interests include emerging powers, foreign policy analysis, and international political economy, aiming to combine those fields of study to allow for a deeper and more comprehensive approach to international relations. He is currently participating in a project on Brazilian foreign policy, and his doctoral research centres on Brazilian foreign policy decision-making processes, with a special focus on the role played by the Brazilian National Congress.

André Luiz Reis da Silva holds a PhD in Political Science from the UFRGS. He is Associate Professor and Dean of the Graduate Programme in International Strategic Studies at the same university, and Editor-in-Chief of Conjuntura Austral: Journal of the Global South. Previously, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of the University of London (2013). He researches the international relations of Southern countries, focusing on Brazilian foreign policy and emerging powers in Asia and Africa. One current research project is focused on Brazilian and Turkish foreign policy in comparative perspective, and another on the foreign policy of Dilma Rousseff´s government. He holds a CNPq Productivity Fellowship (level 2).

	Legislative Term						Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
	49^th	50^th	51^st	52^nd	53^rd	54^th	Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
Economy	854	901	772	424	371	321	3643	263	30%	66.2%	3.8%
Health	178	390	465	347	645	445	2470	153	46.3%	50.8%	2.9%
Mines and Energy	240	266	472	407	524	502	2411	122	29.8%	66%	4.3%
Education	128	210	255	203	305	425	1526	102	34.5%	63.4%	2.1%
Justice	191	171	213	292	265	300	1432	54.4	34.3%	60.1%	5.6%
Defense	268	193	178	199	384	142	1364	87.1	24.3%	72.7%	3%
Planning	62	436	175	152	171	266	1262	128	39.5%	57.8%	2.6%
Social Security	208	349	362	155	88	50	1212	131	28.8%	69.6%	1.6%
Transports	144	142	207	170	242	211	1116	40.4	35.3%	61.7%	3%
Environment	143	186	213	185	245	129	1101	43.1	44%	51.9%	4.1%
Communications	130	202	262	184	186	111	1075	53.9	40.7%	52.3%	6.9%
Agriculture	131	140	169	121	155	64	780	36.6	32.6%	63.4%	4%
Cities	0	0	120	76	214	243	653	104	33.3%	65%	1.7%
Labor	129	71	120	91	183	55	649	46.2	18.3%	80.4%	1.4%
Agrarian Development	0	36	99	96	268	133	632	93	19.5%	77.1%	3.3%
Development, Industry and Trade	15	84	171	145	99	92	606	54	29.5%	64%	6.5%
Science and Technology	28	31	72	109	207	92	539	65.9	36.1%	61.5%	2.4%
Foreign Relations	82	72	84	98	99	83	518	10.4	24.3%	68.7%	6.9%
Social Development	162	0	0	102	123	124	511	68.8	23%	75.2%	1.8%
Chief of Staff	12	44	71	116	173	80	496	56.4	14.9%	79.7%	5.4%
Total	4602	5425	4189	4813	4067	3357	26453		32.5%	63.9%	3.6%
Average	118	139	107	123	104	86	678
Median	83	99	91	71	31	17	392

	Legislative Term						Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
	49^th	50^th	51^st	52^nd	53^rd	54^th	Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
Economy	212	299	138	219	89	108	1065	79.9	44.2%	53.4%	2.4%
Mines and Energy	51	57	55	104	57	95	419	23.3	41.7%	54.2%	4.2%
Health	21	35	39	102	53	60	310	28.2	35.5%	59.4%	5.2%
Justice	24	31	55	86	49	56	301	21.9	42.5%	50.2%	7.4%
Defense	35	38	24	88	39	39	263	22.4	39.6%	55.5%	4.9%
Planning	14	114	20	54	25	27	254	37.7	51.6%	45.7%	2.8%
Transports	17	29	21	52	23	49	191	15	51.1%	44.4%	4.5%
Communications	27	24	16	28	23	38	156	7.2	43.4%	41.4%	15.2%
Foreign Relations	17	16	15	42	36	27	153	11.5	31.1%	46.4%	22.5%
Education	17	19	20	47	21	27	151	11.2	18.5%	68.5%	12.9%
Social Security	13	38	19	46	14	19	149	13.8	47.3%	50%	2.7%
Agriculture	32	37	16	31	16	17	149	9.5	44.3%	53%	2.7%
Chief of Staff	2	15	1	101	14	16	149	37.9	9.4%	85.2%	5.4%
Development, Industry and Trade	7	14	18	50	17	42	148	17.2	44.8%	51.7%	3.4%
Environment	7	30	8	46	24	29	144	14.8	42.4%	52.8%	4.9%
Agrarian Development	0	11	22	35	21	18	107	11.7	33.3%	57.1%	9.5%
Labor	19	11	16	39	9	11	105	11.2	31.5%	64.9%	3.6%
National Integration	18	3	13	21	14	16	85	6.2	42.5%	50%	7.5%
Social Development	16	0	0	33	5	12	66	12.6	17.2%	81%	1.7%
Science and Technology	4	6	7	24	8	15	64	7.5	34.4%	64.1%	1.6%
Total	593	891	556	1413	630	877	4960		39.1%	55.5%	5.4%
Average	24.5	32.9	22.2	38.2	16.6	22.5	127
Median	17	16	16	24	8.5	16	66

	Legislative Term				Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
	51^st	52^nd	53^rd	54^th	Total	Standard Deviation	Government	Opposition	Committee
Economy	24	41	42	57	164	14.8	17.8%	82.2%	0%
Justice	12	28	11	25	76	8.2	19.2%	80.8%	0%
Mines and Energy	13	19	16	24	72	5	25.7%	74.3%	0%
Foreign Policy	8	29	21	19	77	9	10.5%	88.2%	1.3%
Foreign Relations	8	25	20	18	71	7.1	11.4%	87.1%	1.4%
International Affairs	0	4	1	1	6	1.7	0%	100%	0%
Planning	5	12	20	27	64	9.6	20.3%	79.7%	0%
Chief of Staff	2	8	21	26	57	11.4	15.8%	82.5%	1.8%
Health	16	11	8	21	56	8	19.6%	80.4%	0%
Defense	6	18	18	10	52	7.4	23.1%	76.9%	0%
Agriculture	9	6	6	21	42	5.6	31.7%	68.3%	0%
Agrarian Development	6	9	7	11	33	1.8	31.3%	68.8%	0%
Development, Industry and Trade	2	10	3	16	31	9.5	12.9%	87.1%	0%
Social Security	8	6	7	6	27	1.4	11.1%	88.9%	0%
Labor	4	6	2	15	27	5.6	3.7%	96.3%	0%
Environment	3	5	6	12	26	3.9	28%	72%	0%
Communications	4	4	7	8	23	2.1	0%	100%	0%
Total	142	248	232	432	1054		17.3%	82.5%	0.2%
Average	7.8	14.2	13.1	23.7	58.8
Median	3	5	3	10	22

	Legislative Term						Total	Government	Opposition	Committee
	49^th	50^th	51^st	52^nd	53^rd	54^th	Total	Government	Opposition	Committee
Economy	10	10	2	2	0	0	24	34.8%	65.2%	0%
Foreign Relations	1	0	6	2	0	2	11	9.1%	81.8%	9.1%
Justice	2	1	1	4	2	0	10	30%	70%	0%
Planning	0	9	0	0	1	0	10	80%	20%	0%
Health	1	3	3	2	2	0	11	40%	60%	0%
Agriculture	3	3	1	1	0	0	8	50%	50%	0%
Mines and Energy	2	1	1	3	1	0	8	50%	50%	0%
Labor	4	1	0	2	0	0	7	42.9%	57.1%	0%
Chief of Staff	0	0	0	4	1	0	5	0%	100%	0%
Agrarian Development	0	1	1	3	0	0	5	40%	60%	0%
Total	32	36	22	32	9	3	134	33.6%	65.7%	0.7%
Average	1.1	1.4	0.8	1.2	0.3	0.1	4.9
Median	0	1	0	1	0	0	3

	Legislative Term						Total	Government	Opposition	Committee
	49^th	50^th	51^st	52^nd	53^rd	54^th	Total	Government	Opposition	Committee
General Proceedings	34	32	29	44	22	28	189	21.7%	74.6%	3.7%
United States	3	13	19	18	4	2	59	32.2%	57.6%	10.2%
Bolivia	1	1	2	8	12	17	41	22.5%	65%	12.5%
Security	4	3	5	11	9	5	37	16.2%	64.9%	18.9%
Venezuela	6	0	0	5	11	15	37	13.9%	66.7%	19.4%
Trade	2	7	13	10	4	1	37	32.4%	56.8%	10.8%
Environment	8	5	0	4	12	3	32	34.4%	59.4%	6.3%
Amazon	0	3	2	8	2	1	16	56.3%	31.3%	12.5%
International Organizations	1	3	5	2	3	1	15	13.3%	73.3%	13.3%
Cuba	1	2	0	3	4	4	14	0%	85.7%	14.3%
Human Rights	3	0	2	1	2	6	14	7.1%	85.7%	7.1%
Argentina	3	1	1	5	1	2	13	30.8%	61.5%	7.7%
Paraguay	1	1	1	1	6	2	12	25%	66.7%	8.3%
Iran	1	0	2	0	7	2	12	16.7%	75%	8.3%
Europe	2	1	3	2	0	4	12	33.3%	50%	16.7%
Foreign Firms	0	2	2	1	5	0	10	20%	70%	10%
Health	1	1	1	1	0	6	10	22.2%	66.7%	11.1%
China	0	1	1	3	2	3	10	10%	60%	30%
Total	100	88	113	171	155	130	757	24.1%	66.4%	9.4%

Brasil