A geografia eleitoral: padrões de votação para deputados federais no Rio Grande do Sul e em Pernambuco nas eleições de 2006 e 2010

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the geography of the vote and the voting patterns of candidates for federal deputy from Rio Grande do Sul and Pernambuco in the elections in 2006 and 2010. We analyzed different methods of choice of voters, seeking to assess the existence of institutional incentives of the Brazilian electoral system of voting concentrated in certain regions of these states. We examined the votes obtained by candidates in those elections, checking the levels of concentration and dispersion of the votes and the election influence of the deputies who ran for reelection on the municipalities which they attributed to larger votes. Investigating the patterns found, they were related to different coalitions, political parties and also with the electoral success of candidates. The results showed a higher index of politicians with their base concentrated in certain regions in the state of Pernambuco and a balance between concentration and dispersion of votes for candidates in Rio Grande do Sul. In both federal units it was also verified degrees of dominance of deputies over their bases in approximately 40% of cases. Finally, it was found that, for these two states, there was no incentive to the representative concentration of a number of geographic areas over others. It was identified a representation proportional to population of the state regions, with minor variations, generating higher rates in the capital. Thus, this work is justified by the importance of the topic, lack of recent empirical work addressing comparatively two states as distinct features, and contribution to the discussion of some theoretical issues of Political Science.