And in their name will be exercised: descriptive representation and political inequality of gender and race in Brazil

Abstract:

The paper employs the concept of descriptive representation in an investigation of the socioeconomic, institutional, and contextual conditions of political inequality. The scope of analysis is the election of the Chamber of Deputies in 2018. Descriptive representation standards are observed according to gender and race at the level of the Federation unity. The research employs statistical analysis to assess factors related to the present descriptive inequality and its change between 2014 and 2018. The limited number of cases allows a detailed approach to the identified relations. It is interpreted that the occurrence of a reduction in political inequality in the Federation unity is associated with the candidacy of Bolsonaro in two ways: (a) less reelection of incumbents; and (b) politicization of the gender agenda in elections. It is credited to the socioeconomic and institutional factors, respectively, conditionality and intervention. Grounded on the case investigated, an interpretative model of the socioeconomic, institutional, and contextual conditions of short-term change in parliamentary political inequality is proposed.

Keywords:
Chamber of Deputies; Gender; Race; Bolsonaro; #EleNão