Party identity and ambivalence among Brazilian voters: The lesser of evils?

Abstract

Research on partisan voters in Brazil have demonstrated a decline in both partisanship and feelings toward political parties. How is party identity maintained in this situation? We affirm that even when voters do not evaluate their own party positively, their party identification persists through their inter-party feelings, which have deteriorated in recent years. Data from the Brazilian Election Studies (ESEB) for the period from 2002 to 2018 suggest that partisan voters are less enthusiastic about Brazilian political parties, and the relationship between partisan feelings has strengthened in the most recent electoral context. The results about the relationship between party sentiments, to use a quadratic term, indicate that the main alternatives to support for the Worker’s Party (PT) justified a party identity based on the ‘lesser of two evils’ strategy. This indicates the use of a greater deterioration of the image of a political opponent as a mechanism to justify ambivalence in relation to their own partisan position.

party feelings; “petismo”; ambivalence; cognitive motivations; partisanship