This paper analyses the political representation in the Brazilian national legislative, discussing authors that point out the disproportion in the representation of population in states as one of the problems to be worked out in the Brazilian democracy. Based on theoretical considerations and empirical data, we aim to demonstrate the singularity of the political representation in State federative kinds, the imprecise diagnostic of causes and consequences of the unevenness in representing the states, and the impact of forming new states on the political representation. The conclusions advocate the defense, in the name of the federation, of some degree of unevenness in representing Brazilian states in the House of Representatives and to the diagnosis that the generation of poor and populous states is a relevant factor to increase unevenness, with negative impacts not only on the political representation, but also on public finances and social policies.
Federalism; Democracy; Political representation; New states; Regional unevenness; Brazilian legislative
