Research on Brazilian political institutions has often emphasized the negative impacts of "robust" federalism, open-list proportional representation, and weak party institutionalization, over the production of public policies. The article develops an alternative argument, founded in comparative bases, in order to account for the unexpected successes of federal social policy initiatives along the years 1990 and 2000. In this sense, it analyses underexplored dimensions in the debate over Brazilian political institutions, regarding the role of electoral coalitions, party dynamics, and vertical competition between spheres of government in what comes to social policy-making. And it arrives to the conclusion that the vertical and inter-parties competition in coalition presidentialism has generated incentives for incremental processes in the development of public policies, allowing for the creation of universalistic and redistributive social programs.
Coalition presidentialism; Federalism; Elections; Social policy
