Power structures in the political finance networks in elections of 2010 in Brazil

Abstract

This article analyses 299,968 relationships established between 251,665 actors (donors and/or recipients) of financial legal resources declared by candidates and parties in all positions at stake in the 2010 elections in Brazil. Data from the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (Superior Electoral Court) was used, together with the methodology of social network analysis and complementary statistical procedures, to explore the topology of the subnets (components) and of the calculations of the centrality of the actors – candidates, party agents and private funders. The results show the high connectivity and asymmetry of the campaign finance network in Brazil and they expose that the positioning of the actors in the network layers is crucial to the performances of both the candidates and the funders, revealing, in an unprecedented way, the existence of a political elite within the Brazilian electoral system.

political finance; social network analysis; electoral performance; Brazil, 2010 elections