23rd IPSA World Congress of Political Science 23ème AISP Congrès Mondial de Science Politique
Session: RC20 Political Finance and Political Corruption
Panel: Money, Corruption and Political Competition
What campaign spending tell us about campaign professionalization in Brazil?
Cíntia Pinheiro Ribeiro de Souza Draft paper. Please, do not cite! Comments are welcome.
July 19-24 juillet, 2014 Montréal, Québec, Canada
What campaign spending tell us about campaign professionalization in Brazil?1
Cíntia Pinheiro Ribeiro de Souza Institute of Social and Political Studies of Rio de Janeiro State University (IESP-UERJ)
Abstract: This paper describes the current situation of professionalization of electoral campaigns in Brazil and seeks for any patterns or systematic differences of levels of professionalization between campaigns for National Congress positions. The Brazilian National Congress has a bicameral system in which senators are elected under Simple Plurality rule while federal deputies are elected under Open-List Proportional Representation system. Therefore, it is expected that candidates for the Senate will have a higher level of professionalization, especially concerning modern communication techniques, than candidates for the Chamber of Deputies. But how great is the gap between campaigns for both legislative positions? Do parties contribute to relieve or to strengthen that gap? How does this gap vary within different regions of the country? We know almost nothing about how those candidates spend their money on campaigns apart from a couple of anecdotes. To start answering those questions, I turn to the data on campaign spending of candidates in the latest 2010 Congress elections.
Résumé: Cet article décrit la situation actuelle de la professionnalisation des campagnes électorales au Brésil et cherche pour des modèles ou des différences systématiques des niveaux de professionnalisation entre les campagnes pour des postes au Congrès National. Le Congrès National Brésilien dispose d'un système bicaméral dans lequel les sénateurs sont élus sous simple règle de la pluralité tandis que députés fédéraux sont élus en vertu de liste ouverte système de représentation proportionnelle. Par conséquent, il est prévu que les candidats au Sénat auront un niveau de professionnalisation, spécialement concernant les techniques modernes de communication, que les candidats à la Chambre des Députés. Mais quel est l'écart entre les campagnes pour les deux positions législatives? Les partis contribuent à soulager ou à renforcer cet écart? Comment cet écart varie dans les différentes régions du pays? Nous ne savons presque rien sur la façon dont les candidats dépensent leur argent sur les campagnes en dehors de quelques anecdotes. Pour commencer à répondre à ces questions, nous nous tournons vers les données sur les dépenses de campagne des candidats aux dernières élections au Congrès de 2010.
1
I would like to thank the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies at the University of California San Diego that hosted me as a Fulbright Visiting Research Student while I started to prepare this paper. I also would like to acknowledge the financial support I received from Capes-Fulbright Commission during my visiting research period at UCSD, San Diego, and from CNPq to attend the 23 rd IPSA Congress.
Introduction Little is known about how candidates spend their resources during electoral campaigns in Brazil. Due to the permeability of open-list proportional representation in districts with high magnitude2 and the possibility of electoral coalitions, the competition to the Chamber of Deputies brings in a large variety of candidate’s profiles in each state. We could expect that the group of candidates elected for the Chamber is far more heterogeneous than the group elected through majoritarian posts, as for the Senate. The candidates for the Senate compete under a majoritarian rule that has a variable magnitude of one or two seats per election alternately each four years. Although each four years we do have elections for senators, one third of the Senate is renovated each eight years under the first past the post system and the other two thirds are renovated each eight years under the block vote system. All this diversity probably generates a larger repertoire of styles of campaign, in which should vary the professionalization and modernization of them. By professional, I mean a campaign organized with the help of qualified professionals for the several roles required in conducting a campaign. Lawyers provide legal support for the registration of candidates, for the campaign’ actions and they also defend their clients in case of controversies. Accountants and administrators take care of campaign financial resources and they contact suppliers, for example. Press advisors look after the image of the candidate and the communications. Campaign managers are responsible to coordinate daily actions and they cooperate with the candidate in the formulation and the implementation of campaign strategic actions. If the candidate does not count on the services of these professionals, their campaigns can be described as less professional. The more the candidate do these functions himself, the more we should classify their campaign as an amateur one. By modern, I mean a campaign that uses more capital-intensive resources to communicate, rather than labor-intensive methods. The modernization of campaigns resulted in the use of certain features – such as television advertisements, the Internet, telemarketing, political marketing techniques, including the use of surveys – to assist the candidate to address voters, even at distance, in a more efficiently way. It remains to ask just how modern and professional are the campaigns of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in Brazil? Is it possible to identify patterns of professionalization and modernization of these campaigns? Do we observe homogenous or heterogeneous patterns? Do the characteristics of candidates, parties and states where the race occurs have any effect on those patterns? There are studies that show that one of the heuristics available to offer clues to the voter's decision in a context of rationality under low information is how competent candidates are able to show themselves during campaigns (POPKIN, 1994: 213). Undoubtedly, showing herself competent during a campaign has to do with not only attitude and rhetoric of the candidate, but it has to do with how modern and professional a campaign is. It provides a hint about the electoral viability of the candidate to voters and campaign contributors. Hiring a 2
Magnitudes vary from eight to seventy seats.
good team of advisers in advance indicates that the runner is serious and is competing for real (JONHSON, 2007: 37). This is a theme little explored in Brazil and, starting with the description of these campaign’s attributes, in the future, it will be possible to attempt to verify whether these factors have an impact on the voter’s choice. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the current situation of the professionalization and the modernization of electoral campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in Brazil. For this preliminary analysis, I classified data for four states: Acre, Bahia, Distrito Federal and São Paulo. By comparing two sets of electoral rules on different socio-demographic contexts, I seek to control and to explore potential sources of variation in the levels of professionalization and modernization of campaigns. Finally, I aim to describe the way in which candidates conduct their campaigns regarding these issues in order to identify patterns and differences, and to generate a basis for future research. On the one hand, I chose to operationalize "professionalization" as the measure of the candidates’ expenses with qualified professionals such as lawyers, accountants and press advisors. I also measured the expenses with surveys or political consultants and campaign headquarters. On the other hand, I operationalized "modernization" as the measure of candidates´ spending on the production3 of advertisements for the mass media (radio and TV), telemarketing, Internet and direct mail. Besides classifying expenditures in these categories, I sought to distinguish whether the candidates paid for such expenses or if the candidate had received such services in the form of campaign donation. I proceeded this way because I expected that hiring services would show more professional relationships in the conduct of campaigns, while receiving voluntary services indicate less professionalism. I analyzed the reports of accounts of candidates for Congress in 2010, available at the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) website4 taking into consideration variations between states and parties. The data show interesting differences among candidates to the Chamber and to the Senate of different states and parties. In general, the professionalization of campaigns, as well as their modernization, is lower among candidates for federal deputy. There is a considerable proportion of donations of professional services to those candidates. Moreover, specially among the candidates for the Chamber, these differences illustrate the separation of runners among a competitive group and another little, if anything, competitive. Among the competitive, professionalization and modernization are much higher. On the other side, a great mass of little or no competitive candidates seem to contest more due to a civic desire to participate in the electoral process, achievable thanks to the high permeability of the system, without the professionalism of other candidates.
3
In Brazil, candidates and parties are not allowed to pay for ads on the radio, TV or on the Internet within third parties’ websites. The broadcasts on the radio and TV are public financed and very regulated. The time of broadcasts is divided among the parties proportionally to their representation in the Chamber of Deputies and the parties distribute the time for their candidates according to internal decisions. Candidates are allowed to have personal websites, blogs and social media pages. 4 TSE website: www.tse.jus.br.
Questions surrounding professionalization and modernization of electoral campaigns The introduction of television in election campaigns in the mid-twentieth century and the more recent telecommunications technological revolutions were identified as milestones of the evolution of campaigning. Classifications such as Farrell’s (1996) and Norris’s (2002), which refer to what would have been the different stages of this evolution, although using different labels, are quite similar. Essentially, the authors refer to three periods. Pre-modern campaigns, prior to TV, would be marked by the extensive employment of militants, paid and voluntary, and a certain amateurism, since the organization of the campaign took place in an ad hoc manner. Modern campaigns brought the massification of electoral communication by the use of TV, professionalization and centralization in the campaign organization and the emphasis on the image of the leader. During the post-modern period, the telecommunications revolution would have allowed the customization of electoral messages to segments of the electorate, but the costs of this process would have become increasingly high by the use of specialized professional services and the technologies involved. In addition, the campaign would have become permanent. Throughout this evolution, the campaigns have become progressively modern and more professional. However, technological changes alone do not explain these modifications in the way candidates and parties communicate with their voters5. Farrell (ibid, op cit.) identifies the background for these changes with the dealignment in party identification and with the increasing electoral volatility in the '80s. Because of the perception of the weakening of parties as electoral forces together with those transformations to campaigning, the authors have shifted their attention to the role of parties as campaign organizations and to the adaption of the parties to this new reality of more modern, professional and personalized campaigns than before. It is with this party-centered view that the authors have attempted to frame the debate over the professionalization of campaigns in order to understand how the party organizations have responded to these changes and how the characteristics of different parties interfere with the absorption of those professionalizing stimuli (FARRELL, WEBB, 2002; FARRELL 2006; GIBSON; ROMMELE, 2009). However, although some of the European parties have experienced a bit of personalization in their modern campaigns, this modernizing trend has been the norm in the U.S. context. The Americans were pioneers in the use of television as a means of mass communication for candidates in the elections and their political consultants took up the condition of stars, often in a dominant position relative to the candidate. For this reason, the role of parties is not in the center of the debate over professionalization of campaigns there. In the United States, studies have attempted to describe and classify campaigns with a view to assessing the strategies and the chances of victory of the candidates. Therefore, they attempt to measure the impact of campaigns on voting and the adequacy of the means employed by the candidates to convince voters. As the U.S. parties are seen as weak, some authors point out that, in a context of limited information, voters and campaign donors use the clues offered by the candidate’s campaign as informational shortcuts to evaluate quality and electoral viability of the runner 5
Farrell also mentions that other factors such as Presidentialism, Federalism, electoral rules, the availability of financial resources, access to TV airtime and ideology contribute to the configuration of campaigns (1996: 162164).
(POPKIN, 1994; JOHNSON, 2007). Another aspect debated is the production of information. This is a sensitive area because of the emphasis on negative campaigning and the episodes of manipulation of information that surrounds the history of American elections. According to Selnow, high-tech campaigns, in which there is a tendency for customizing the message and targeting voters through cable TV, direct mail or telemarketing, offer better conditions to manipulate the voter, since the media can no longer monitor the entire content produced by different campaigns (SELNOW, 1994: 149). According to the author, the circulation of targeted and circumscribed messages in homogeneous groups allows candidates to avoid discussing issues in a complex manner, by revealing their position in a partial and convenient way to persuade specific groups (Ibid, op cit.: 132). Undoubtedly, this setting also promotes the polarization of political debate. The literature has dealt with the professionalization and the modernization as interchangeable concepts when it comes to electoral campaigns. The professionalization relates fundamentally to the way the campaign is planned and executed. It has to do with how the candidates decide on the message content, to the way and the most suitable time to deliver it, to how the candidates and parties are able to collect the resources needed for campaign activities and, not less important, to preparing the candidate for the competition. Therefore, the professionalization involves the delegation of tasks such as the strategic planning and execution of the campaign, by the candidate to a professional expert and the payment for these services. These two dimensions, delegation and payment for services, define what is meant by professionalism in the conduct of an electoral campaign. Some authors understand that the involvement of the person receiving the delegation with the candidate at any level other than professional as generating inefficiencies for the campaign. According to Johnson, there may be technical inconveniences to conduct services in favor of the campaign arising from the involvement between candidates and volunteers, such as lack of discipline on the part of volunteers and friends or the bias caused by a poll or a survey done by an enthusiast (JOHNSON, 2007: 216-218). When the dispute is centered on the candidate, is equally inefficient to receive those services provided by the party organizations, because, in general, when parties collaborate in some way, the services provided are not designed to meet the specific needs of candidates. However, it does not mean that the volunteer work of militants and amateur is not something positive for the campaigns. Ideally, professionalization can be described by a continuum where services by volunteers and amateurs is the least professionalized point and paid professionals services is at the other, more professional, end. Most campaigns rely on a mixture of these types of services. Nevertheless, we could expect that the paid professionals make a difference in planning and executing strategic tasks such as surveys, political research, coordination, financial management, decisions on message content production and dissemination. To the militants, it remains the task of pushing voters to get out the vote for their candidate by their dedication to the party or by their enthusiasm for the name they advertise. The idea of modernization, in its turn, is broader for it embodies the temporal and technological developments of campaigns, including their increased professionalism.
Somewhere in the past, campaigns depended only on paper and megaphones to spread the message. With the popularization of radio and telephone, new possibilities emerged. The introduction of television was groundbreaking. Recently, the popularity of the mobile phone and the Internet promise new possibilities to campaigns. The instantaneous message exchange and the prominence of new actors through blogs, social networks and even crowdfunding illustrate the new opportunities for mobilization. At each stage of campaigns’ modernization, specialists develop new research and communication techniques to assist candidates, which require a team of skilled consultants and service providers to deal with these new techniques. Although the separation of stages of evolution of the professionalization of campaigns is interesting, the idea of a continuum seems more fruitful to understand variances within a system where campaigns more or less professional and more or less modern can coexist. A scale or an index may describe both notions of professionalization and modernization. Amateur and low budget campaigns may contain elements of modernity, such as using the Internet, for example. The professionalization and modernization of campaigns should vary according to the disputed office, the socio-demographic context (economic development and size of the electorate), the electoral system and electoral rules. It also may vary depending on the campaign budget, the size and ideology of the candidate’s party and it is likely to vary according to the characteristics of the candidates. Generally, campaigns for majoritarian positions are more professional and more modern because they need to reach a majority of the electorate. The larger this electorate is, the greater the incentives are to use efficient mass communications to reach the voter, like TV and Internet. Nevertheless, it is clear that factors such as the popularization of certain technologies of communication and the availability of resources for parties and candidates also influence the levels of professionalization and modernization of campaigns. The more popularized the technologies and the more available resources are, the greater the incentive. Additionally, the electoral rules and access to the media may contain or incite further the professionalizing and modernizing impetus of parties and candidates. Finally, the characteristics of parties and candidates themselves shape these processes. Gibson and Rommele suggest that left parties, due to their tradition of popular mobilization, would tend to centralize the organization of campaigns and would modernize their campaigns in a less intense way than some right-wing parties, which are more sympathetic to the hints of political consultants (GIBSON; ROMMELE, 2009: 280). Incentives to professionalize and modernize electoral campaigns in Brazil In Brazil, the discontinuities of the party system and the interruptions to democracy delayed both processes of modernization and professionalization of electoral campaigns. The parties have faced obstacles to organize and assert themselves in the Brazilian party system. Changes, from the multiparty system to bipartisanship promoted by the military regime and the reverse movement encouraged during the democratic transition discontinued the party organizations and, consequently, the deepening of party identification among voters and the longevity of parties as organizational structures. This also might have reinforced the little prominence of
parties in the organization of candidates’ campaigns, stimulated by open list proportional system that favors candidate-centered campaigns. Along with interviews carried out with politicians by Tognozzi, the current perception is that competitors do not receive any help from their party and that they have to make their campaigns by themselves (TOGNOZZI, 2008: 142). Still, the author notes that the parties have no concern to invest in opinion polls on controversial topics or to standardize campaign materials (ibid, op cit: 143). The only candidates that deserve some attention are the vote getters6 (puxadores de voto) because they are strategic in helping to elect other party candidates and to attract substantial campaign funding (ibid, op cit: 141). Censorship during the military regime on the format7 of campaign broadcasts on radio and TV by Law “Falcão” (Lei 6339, 1976) almost crippled the evolution of political marketing applied to electoral communication in electronic media. Indirect elections imposed restrictions on the development of professional relationships in campaigns for majoritarian positions, which are usually the focus of the professionalization of electoral campaigns. As stated by Figueiredo, it was only after the resumption of direct elections for governors in 1982 that campaigns began to modernize. The use of television and qualitative research consolidated this trend in the campaign for president in 1989 (FIGUEIREDO, 2000: 19). Still following Figueiredo, since then political marketing has developed, the electoral advertising has become modern and of good quality and the country have been exporting experts. Nonetheless, some authors highlight a certain distrust of political marketing professionals by political scientists and the lack of dialogue between these areas (FIGUEIREDO, 2000; VEIGA; GONDIM, 2001; BAREL, 2007). In an attempt to combat this suspicion and to strengthen the image of the professionals of political marketing, the Brazilian Association of Political Consultants (ABCOP) was created in 19918, linked to the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política of São Paulo (BAREL, 2007). The lack of credibility did not influence only the political consultants and the professional of political marketing. The electoral polls lacked precision and there were rumors of bias in favor or against certain candidates, given the magnitude of the forecast errors and the way the polling institutes released the results. The errors of the polling institutes in the 1985 elections, especially in Fortaleza and Goiania were emblematic of this problem (FIGUEIREDO, 1986). According to Silveira, there was even a bill approved by Congress in 1989 to prohibit the dissemination of polls within 30 days prior to the election that the Supreme Court barred because it was unconstitutional (SILVEIRA, 2002: 367). Also according to that author, this caused a reaction of those responsible for the polls and the Academy that went on to discuss the influence of the results on the decision of voters in the ‘90s (ibid, op cit.).
6
As stated by Tognozzi, the interpretation of the Supreme Electoral Court concerning party switching has motivated parties to attract likely vote getters (TOGNOZZI, 2008: 144) because it is favorable to the parties while it punishes "unfaithful" politians who switch parties. 7 Following the Falcão law, parties could only show the name, number, a brief CV and a photo of the candidate in the free airtime. This law began its effects in the year 1984. 8 By comparison, two veteran political consultants, an American and a French, created the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC) in 1968, 23 years before the creation of the ABCOP.
However, not even these limitations prevented the Brazilian campaigns from experiencing new technologies at each new election. The incorporation of new means of political communication and political marketing techniques in campaigns also reflected in the academic debate in Brazil. The first descriptive studies, including many from anthropological tradition, sought to narrate the events of the campaign discussing their meanings and symbols (PALMEIRA; HEREDIA, 1995; CHAIA, 1996; KUSCHNIR, 2000). The democratization and the end of censorship on free airtime of electoral propaganda (HGPE – Horário Gratuito de Propaganda Eleitoral) brought television to the center of the electoral campaign. But the television campaign gained an important contribution to confirm this modernizing trend with the introduction of television spots along the regular TV broadcasting schedule in 1996 (Law on Political Parties, Lei 9096 of 1995) in municipal elections and in 1998 (Law on Elections, Lei 9504 of 1997) in national elections. The discussion on this modernization also began in the literature. Veiga (2000) and Veiga & Gondim (2001) highlighted the potential of free airtime to generate information for voters and the homogenizing effect on the opinions from the synchronization of the attention of voters on the same issue. Miguel (2004) also spoke of the inability of HGPE to change the media agenda, although he highlighted that this did not mean irrelevance of the free airtime in the construction of the public agenda. Finally, the studies focused on the analysis of content and rhetoric of advertisements (FIGUEIREDO ET AL, 1998; SCHMITT ET AL, 1999; VEIGA ET AL, 2007; CERVI, 2011) and negative campaigning (LAWRENCE, 2002; BORBA, 2012). With the exception of Schmitt et al (1999) and Cervi (2011), which analyze HGPE as a partisan resource in proportional elections, the studies tend to emphasize only the majoritarian campaigns; after all, they are the ones that have the most advanced features, the largest budgets and lengthiest broadcasts. The production of television ads is one of the first stimuli for professionalizing electoral campaigns. The fact that parties or candidates cannot buy airtime and that the legislation regulates so much the free airtime in Brazil weaken the modernizing boost of using electronic media on campaigns. Especially regarding the ads for the proportional seats, the high fragmentation and the extremely short time of only a few seconds for each candidate also weaken that boost. Unless the parties actually invest in standardization or even in a collective9 strategy in such advertisements, the incentive is small for individual candidates to invest in TV communications when campaigning for proportional seats. There is still the possibility of cooperation between candidates for different offices on simultaneous elections with the formation of doubles of the type president & deputy, deputy & governor, senator & deputy or governor & senator, which may also contribute to the further professionalization of the proportional campaigns.
9
The party has discretion over the distribution of the free airtime among the candidates. The Law on Elections (Lei 9504 of 1997) only specifies the division of time between the parties, but it is not clear on any criteria for time distribution among candidates competing for proportional seats. Candidates for the Senate have more broadcasting time because they are only one or two per party per election. Usually they count their time on minutes, instead of seconds, when their party have a good amount of representation at the Chamber of Deputies. Samuels (1997) highlights the unusual collective strategy followed by candidates for proportional seats of the Worker’s Party (PT) in the Brazilian candidate-centered context.
Recently, some studies have stressed the potential benefit of new technologies resulting from the revolution in telecommunications to electoral campaigns. Although in a late manner compared to other countries, the access to mobile telephone has been popularizing and the number of Internet users has been growing at each election in Brazil. Along with this process, the possibilities of customization of the message and interaction also increase. Despite the criticism of Sorj (2006) that the democratizing potential of the Internet has limits due to message targeting and the polarization of the political debate, Iasulaitis (2007) points out that websites may not just inform and mobilize voters, they also offer a means of feedback from voters to candidates. Aldé (2004) suggests that the virtual environment was conducive to negative campaigning and that candidates managed to attract substantial media coverage through their websites. By its relatively low cost, the virtual campaign can provide a valuable space for promoting the image and bring in modernizing elements for proportional campaigns that face more limitations on television. Some candidates have been using text messaging (SMS) in campaigns in some sort of cheaper and environmentally friendly virtual pamphleteering (TOGNOZZI, op cit: 147). Candidates have also been exploring telemarketing, but the TSE Resolution 23404 of 2014 banned it for the next elections although this resolution is still being challenged in the Supreme Court (STF) by the ADIN 5122 of 2014 for being unconstitutional. In any case, while these technologies have been used in other countries for some time, not just to spread the message, but also to raise funds for candidates, so far these possibilities have been little explored in Brazil. That said, in general, we should expect that the level of professionalization and modernization of campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies will be low. According to Tognozzi, a reduced broadcasting time and a tight budget prevent most candidates to have any access to the professionals of political marketing (ibid, op cit: 146). However, at the same time, the intense regulation of elections in order to give more transparency to the accounts of candidates since 2002 (SOUZA, 2010) imposes considerable demands on the organization of the candidates. They should have complete control over all financial transactions and should provide receipts for all campaign expenditures, for then publish them through the TSE website to render it available to the scrutiny of any citizen. This requires that there is a strict accounting control of the resources. Along with the services of an accountant, legal aid is important to ensure the legality of the campaign, to advise on punishable conducts and on the right of response, etc. Minimally, a campaign should rely on the services of these professionals just to ensure its rightness. I could not find any reference in the Brazilian literature that engages with systematic empirical data to confirm to what extent the impressions of the lack of professionalism and of party support are accurate. To fill this gap, this paper analyzes the rendering of accounts by candidates to explore the information about professionalization and modernization of Brazilian campaigns, especially of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and for the Senate.
Data Analysis In this section, I present the current state of professionalization and modernization of campaigns for Congressman in four Brazilian states (Acre, Bahia, Distrito Federal and São Paulo) in 201010. This scope covers 1,214 candidates for the Chamber of Deputies out of 4,888 apt candidates who rendered accounts and received votes throughout the country. It also covers 32 candidates for the Senate out of 196 apt candidates who reported campaign spending and had votes. This represents a quarter of all candidates for the Chamber and 1/6 of all candidates for the Senate. For the Chamber, there were 34 candidates in Acre, 176 candidates in Bahia, 74 candidates in Distrito Federal, and 931 candidates in São Paulo who had reported campaign spending and received votes. For the Senate, there were three candidates in Acre, nine candidates in Bahia, nine candidates in Distrito Federal and 12 candidates in São Paulo. Table 1. Attributes of four Brazilian states: GDP per capita in Constituency BR$ in 2009 (voters in 2010)
Area (Km²)
District magnitude (Chamber) Acre (AC) 10, 687.45 470,975 164,123,040 8 Bahia (BA) 9, 364.71 9,550,898 564,733,177 39 Distrito Federal (DF) 50, 438.46 1,836,280 5,779,999 8 São Paulo (SP) 26, 202.22 30,301,398 248,222,801 70 Note: The district magnitude for the Senate was two seats in 2010, the same for all states. Source: TSE; IBGE.
Distrito Federal (DF) was the most developed unity of the federation's in 2009, ranking first place in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, followed by the state of São Paulo (SP), the second. Bahia (BA) was one of the least developed states, the ninth poorest. Acre (AC) was one of the smallest constituencies in 2010, the third smallest, while São Paulo was and still is the largest constituency in the country. The DF is the smallest unit of the federation and the Bahia is among the largest, with the fifth largest area. Finally, when considering the offices in dispute, Acre and the DF have districts with smaller magnitudes, and São Paulo, the largest magnitude of the country. With this selection, I sought to ensure some variety with respect to different socio-demographic attributes that would make this initial small sample fruitful to generate questions for further analysis. I operationalized the notions of professionalization and modernization as follows. I used categories of expense predetermined by the TSE but I also reclassified some of them to extract information that would say something about the organization of campaigns. The first step was to describe the data by counting how many candidates had spent something in each of these categories of interest to define the proportion of candidates who professionalized and modernized their activities in elections.
10
Other states will be included in this analysis, which it still is an early version of what will be a chapter in my PhD dissertation.
Among 33 categories11 predetermined by the TSE, I used seven of them directly. I summed up expenses with "headquarters of the campaign" (pré-instalação de comitê) and "rental properties" (locação de imóveis) as a measure of spending on the campaign headquarters settling in. I also used expenditure on "pre-election polls and research" (pesquisas e testes pré-eleitorais), "production of radio and TV ads" (produção de programas para rádio e TV), "creation and maintenance of website" (criação e manutenção de página na Internet), "telemarketing" and "mailing" (despesas postais), which includes spending on direct mail. I opened and reclassified other four categories12 that are a miscellaneous of various types of expenses in order to redirect the spending of interest into the categories already mentioned as well as into other seven categories related to the professionalization of the organization of campaigns that are not provided by the TSE. These categories are "legal assistance", "campaign managers", "press aide", "financial managers", "financial assistants", "professional accountant" and "account assistants". From these categories, I computed the amount of candidates who spent with each of these items, either if the candidates paid for these expenses or if they only received them in the form of donated materials and volunteer service, or if they both paid and received services in the form of donation. In Tables 2-4, it is possible to see the big picture of professionalization and modernization of campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies in all four states (Acre, Bahia, in the Distrito Federal and São Paulo). In table 2, below, we note that slightly less than a third of the candidates for the Chamber reported to have some physical space to use as headquarters of the campaign organization and a little less than a quarter of the candidates had access to legal assistance. Less than a fifth of them relied on coordinators to delegate tasks of the campaign and less than a tenth of them had press agents and access to services of polling or research for planning their strategy. Table 2. Number of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that professionalized campaigns in five items: Headquarters of Legal Campaign Press Aide Polling & campaign Assistance managers Research Paid 200 100 162 71 50 Paid and 72 11 14 2 1 volunteer Volunteer 79 159 29 18 8 Total 351 (29%) 270 (22.2%) 205 (17%) 91 (7.5%) 59 (4.9%) Total N of 1,214 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
These indicators of professional campaigning are more frequent among the candidates for the Senate. In table 3, we see that half of the candidates had headquarters for the campaign, one quarter of them had access to legal assistance and another quarter counted with the help of campaign managers. While the candidates for the Chamber rarely had access to press aide and
11
To learn more about the categories of electoral expenses, see the Technical Manual for the Funding and Spending Resources and Rendering of Accounts of TSE 2010 Available in.: . Accessed on: 10 January 2014. 12 These categories are: "other expenses", "expenses with personnel", "services hired from third-parties" and "estimable cash resources" that refer to services and materials estimable in cash received in the form of donation.
polling & research services, almost a third of the candidates for the Senate hired or received them from volunteer work. Table 3. Number of candidates for the Senate (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that professionalized campaigns in five items: Headquarters of Legal Campaign Press Aide Polling & campaign Assistance managers Research Paid 3 2 5 7 8 Paid and 2 0 1 1 0 volunteer Volunteer 11 6 2 2 2 Total 16 (50%) 8 (25%) 8 (25%) 10 (31.3%) 10 (31.3%) Total N of 32 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
Regarding the employment of professional services for financial management and the rendering of accounts, a little more than a quarter of candidates for the Chamber professionalized these campaign activities. In table 4, below, we can see the distribution of services employed from a financial manager to accountants and assistants. Table 4. Number of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that professionalized the financial administration and the rendering of accounts: Financial Financial Professional Assistant to render At least one of the manager assistant accountant account previous Paid 25 4 155 28 182 Paid and 1 0 3 1 16 volunteer Volunteer 31 7 78 13 109 Total 57 (4.7%) 11 (.9%) 236 (19.4%) 42 (3.5%) 307 (25.3%) Total N of 1,214 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
In table 5, we observe that the candidates for the Senate also professionalized more the administration of their resources and the account reporting system almost as twice as frequently that the candidates for the Chamber. In any case, the work of professional accountants were prevalent and a small portion of the candidates had financial managers and assistants or some other assistant just to keep records and to render accounts. Table 5. Number of candidates for the Senate (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that professionalized the financial administration and the rendering of accounts: Financial Financial Professional Assistant to render At least one of the manager assistant accountant account previous Paid 2 1 9 2 11 Paid and 0 0 0 0 0 volunteer Volunteer 1 0 2 0 3 Total 3 (9.4%) 1 (3.1%) 11 (34.4%) 2 (6.3%) 14 (43.8%) Total N of 32 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
On the topic of campaign communications employed by candidates for the Chamber, more than half of them had access to the free airtime broadcasting. Slightly more than a quarter of
the candidates resorted to the Internet in order to campaign. A very small part of the candidates decided to invest in targeted means of communication, where it is possible to customize both the message and the reception of it, either via mailing and direct mail (22%), or, in a smaller part, via telemarketing, including spending with sending of SMS (6%). Table 6. Number of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that used modern communication in campaigns: Production of radio Mailing and direct Internet campaign Telemarketing and/ or TV ads mail Paid 52 221 65 219 Paid and volunteer 44 34 0 33 Volunteer 530 74 9 16 Total 626 (51.6%) 329 (27.1%) 74 (6%) 268 (22%) Total N of 1,214 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
The production of radio and/ or TV ads was also the most popular (56%) means of modern communications among the candidates for the Senate. However, these candidates used the Internet, proportionally, almost twice as much as the candidates for the Chamber. The targeting of the message via mailing or telemarketing was more frequent but was the least preferred modern means of communications, just like in the campaigns for the Chamber. Table 7. Number of candidates for the Senate (AC, BA, DF and SP) in 2010 that used modern communication in campaigns: Production of radio Mailing and direct Internet campaign Telemarketing and/ or TV ads mail Paid 11 11 3 9 Paid and volunteer 1 1 1 0 Volunteer 6 4 2 1 Total 18 (56.3%) 16 (50%) 6 (18.8%) 10 (31.3%) Total N of 32 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
The voluntary provision of services to the candidates for the Chamber dominated only concerning the legal assistance, the production of radio and/or TV ads and the financial administration of campaigns. For all other activities, paid services prevailed. The candidates for the Chamber may have relied on relatives or friends who did not charge for the services of legal assistance or the financial administration of the campaigns, which are areas where the candidates could have chosen to have closer and trustworthy people around. Another possibility may be that the candidate had received these services from their party or other allied candidates, since some of them may have chosen to render account together by unique financial committees. This seems to be the case for the donation of the production of radio and/or TV ads, since this is a resource highly controlled by the party, including the distribution of time for each candidate.
Table 8. Number of candidates for the Chamber of Deputies (AC, BA, DF and SP) who received three types of volunteer service in 2010 from the following sources: Legal Production of radio Financial manager assistance and/ or TV ads or assistant Party 101 (59.4%) 341 (59.4%) 0 (0%) Other candidates 4 (2.4%) 173 (30%) 0 (0%) State financial committee for 18 (10.6%) 48 (8.4%) 0 (0%) federal deputy Candidate himself 0 (0%) 1 (0.2%) 0 (0%) Individuals 47 (27.6%) 15 (2.6%) 38 (100%) Profitable or non-profitable 3 (1.8%) 3 (.5%) 0 (0%) organizations Total 170 (100%) 574 (100%) 38 (100%) Note: Since candidates may have received volunteer services from different sources, the sum of the lines of a column is not necessarily equal to the last line in the column that refers to the total number of candidates who received a certain type of service. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
As expected, when candidates for the Chamber delegated the financial management of their campaigns, they did delegated to other individuals, most likely people they trust. In table 8, above, we see that the proportion of candidates who received the contribution of legal assistance from individuals was much smaller. In this field, over half of the candidates received some assistance from the party being that the predominant source of volunteer services. In addition, most of the candidates received the assistance required to produce the radio and/ or TV ads from their party, but also from other candidates for various positions, including other candidates for Congress. In table 9, the only services predominantly offered to the candidates for the Senate by volunteer work was the spaces for the headquarters settling in and legal assistance. The personal connections of the candidate through friends (individuals) and friendly organizations seem to have been very important for the central organization of the campaign by the donation of spaces for settling in the headquarters. As it happened to the candidates for the Chamber, the party was the main source of volunteer legal assistance for the candidates. The help from other candidates, especially those that ran for Governor, were also important with this regard. Table 9. Number of candidates for the Senate (AC, BA, DF and SP) who received two types of volunteer service in 2010 from the following sources: Headquarters Legal assistance of campaign Party 3 (23%) 2 (33.3%) Other candidates 2 (15.4%) 2 (33.3%) State financial committee for 1 (7.7%) 1 (16.7%) senator Candidate himself 1 (7.7%) 0 (0%) Individuals 4 (30.8%) 1 (16.7%) Profitable or non-profitable 5 (38.5%) 0 (0%) organizations Total 13 (100%) 6 (100%) Note: Since candidates may have received volunteer services from different sources, the sum of the lines of a column is not necessarily equal to the last line in the column that refers to the total number of candidates who received a certain type of service. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
With a party-centered view, the study of Gibson and Rommele (2009) aimed to determine which features of the parties influenced the level of professionalization of campaigns in Germany. These authors developed an index of professionalization of parties as electoral organizations. As already said, the idea of a scale seems to be the best option to assess how professionalized and modern the activities of candidates and parties are. Keeping this in mind, I generated, in this present study, a first effort to index the professionalization and modernization of Brazilian campaigns regarding the individual endeavors of candidates. This individualized index allows different possibilities for future multivariate analysis. For now, I will explore, in a descriptive way, only a few differences and similarities between groups. According to tables 2-8, I computed the presence or absence of professionalized services, and modern communications in campaigns weighted by the source supplying these services. If services or resources resulted in payment by the candidate, it attains the maximum of 1.00 in professionalization or modernization. If candidates have obtained them via both payment and via volunteering, in a mixed way, one attains .75 of professionalization or modernization. If candidates received the services and resources exclusively by volunteer work or donations, one attains .50 of professionalization or modernization. In case the candidate has not used an item, I compute zero. Finally, I added up all the items to which the candidate had access, separated between professional services (tables 2 and 3) and modern communications (table 4), and I divided the summation by the total number of items to produce an index that is always normalized between 0 and 113. In table 10, as I expected, candidates for the Senate have higher scores of professionalization and modernization than candidates for the Chamber in every aspect of the campaign. We notice that the headquarters of the campaign and the financial management and the rendering of accounts are the most professional features of the campaigns for the Chamber and for the Senate. This means that, for these items, a higher proportion of candidates tend to hire professionalized services. However, there are few who did it because the average scores (respectively, .205 and .242 for the Chamber and .313 and .391 for the Senate) are quite far from the maximum of 1.00. The dispersion of scores is quite large for all items and we can see that by the high standard deviation values. This means that the professionalization varies a lot in all of these items from candidate to candidate. The less professional activities, on average, of campaigns for the Chamber are the polls and the press aide. However, these are areas where the candidates for the Senate achieve much higher scores when compared to the candidates for proportional seats and where the average difference between the two groups are the most conspicuous.
13
Professionalization index = (Headquarters of campaign organization + Campaign managers + Legal assistance + Press aide + Polling and research + Financial management and rendering of accounts) / 6 (Total items). Within the financial and rendering of accounts management category, I computed at least one of the following services: financial manager; financial assistant; professional accountant; and assistant for rendering accounts. Modernization index = (Production of radio and/ or TV ads + Internet Campaign + Telemarketing + Mailing and direct mail) / 4 (Total items).
Table 10. Indexes of professionalization and modernization of the candidates’ campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate in 2010 in four states (AC, BA, DF and SP): Chamber of Deputies Senate Mean Standard Mean Standard deviation deviation Headquarters of campaign organization .242 .395 .313 .348 Legal Assistance .155 .310 .156 .296 Financial management and rendering of accounts .205 .371 .391 .471 Press Aide .066 .241 .273 .428 Polling & research .045 .203 .281 .439 Campaign managers .154 .350 .211 .390 I of professionalization .144 .197 .271 .291 Production of radio and/ or TV ads Internet campaign Telemarketing Mailing and direct mail I of modernization
.288 .233 .057 .207 .197
.299 .398 .228 .395 .221
.461 .430 .148 .297 .334
.449 .463 .329 .455 .280
Corr I of professionalization and I of modernization .55 .76 Corr I of professionalization and Log campaign expenses .71 .79 Corr I of modernization and Log campaign expenses .69 .74 Total N of 1,214 apt candidates who had votes and rendered accounts. Note: In all items, the minimum observed was 0 and maximum 1, with the exception of the index of modernization for the Senate, which had a maximum of .92. Source: Brazil; TSE. Data organized by the author.
When we look at the levels of modernization, the scores of production of radio and/ or TV ads and campaign on the Internet are the highest among the means used, and telemarketing, the lowest. The dispersion of the scores of each item is also great. In any case, the scores of the candidates for the Senate are higher than the scores of the candidates for the Chamber. The two aggregate indexes, professionalization and modernization are also low (less than .50), but on average, campaigns are a little more modern than professionalized in their organization. The two indexes are correlated with one another at .55 in campaigns for the Chamber, but not enough so that we treat them as being indistinguishable. Much higher is the correlation of those indexes in campaigns for the Senate, .76. The professionalization and modernization indexes correlate with the log of candidates’ campaign spending in 2010 at .71 and .69 for the Chamber and at .79 and .74 for the Senate. This indicates that the professionalization seems to be more dependent on financial resources than the modernization and also that the candidates for the majoritarian seats rely more on money to make their campaigns professional and modern than the candidates for the proportional seats. For the Chamber, 47% of candidates had score 0 on the index of professionalization and 34% did so in the index of modernization. Less than 6% of the competitors had an index of professionalization equal to or greater than 0.5 while approximately 10% of the candidates had it on the index of modernization. For the Senate, almost 19% of candidates had a null score of professionalization and about 34% of candidates did not score minimally on the index of modernization. Similarly, around 34% had an index of professionalization equal or
greater than 0.5 while a little bit more of 31% of the candidates had it on the index of modernization. These numbers indicate that candidates for the majoritarian seats lack less frequently some level of professionalization or modernization than candidates for the proportional seats. However, these figures mask possible variations among states, parties and candidates. Graph 1. Professionalization of campaigns for the Chamber by party in each state: Profissionalization of campaigns for the Chamber by party Acre
.8 .6 .4 .2
D PC EM do PDB P T PMHS D PMB N PP PP S P PRR PRB PSP PS B PS C PS DB D C P PS SL O L P PT T PTB C P PT TN do B PV
PV
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PC do B PD PM T D B PM N
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Profissionalization of campaigns for the Chamber by party Bahia
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Profissionalization of campaigns for the Chamber by party São Paulo
.8 .6 .4 .2
Index of professionalization Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
PV
P PC CO do B PD T PH PM S DB PM N PP PP S PR PR B PR PR P TB PS B PS PS C D PS B D C PS PS L O PS L TU PT PT B PT C PT PT N do B
EM D
D PC EM do PDB P T PMHS D PMB N PP PP S P PRR PRB PR P T PSB PS B PS C PS DB D C P PS SL O PS L TU P PT T PTB C PV
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1
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Profissionalization of campaigns for the Chamber by party Distrito Federal
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
In graph 1, above, we see that the ceiling of the professionalization of the campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies is higher in São Paulo, followed by Bahia, then by Distrito Federal and Acre. The maximum of professionalization attained in Acre (.50) is half of the one achieved in SP (1.00). However, when observing the state variations of a specific party, the PT (Worker’s Party), for example, we perceive that the dispersion of professionalization in Acre is much lower than in other states and that its median in Acre is greater than it is in Bahia. Although the PT candidates in Acre are, on average, less professionalized, in this state, all their candidates have a minimum score (a little less than .10) of professionalization that is null in the other states. In other states, the candidates of the PT have much more heterogeneous campaigns, some reaching the level of .8 professionalized campaigns. The same happens with the DEM whose candidates have very low and more homogeneous professionalization campaigns in the Federal District while in São Paulo, they have the only candidate who achieves a full level of
professionalization (1.00), although the party campaigns are much more heterogeneous there. We should expect less dispersion in the organization of campaigns in Acre and Distrito Federal because in those states where the magnitude is smaller, the number of candidates competing is also smaller in comparison with the number of candidates in each party in Bahia or São Paulo. In Bahia or São Paulo, the big number of candidates bring in less homogeneity to the competition. These patterns may relate to the organization of the party in the state and probably to the way the parties selects candidates and organize their collective strategy. Graph 2. Professionalization of campaigns for the Senate by party in each state: Profissionalization of campaigns for the Senate by party
Acre
Bahia
.8 .6 .4 .2
PV
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Index of professionalization
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Profissionalization of campaigns for the Senate by party
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Profissionalization of campaigns for the Senate by party
Distrito Federal
São Paulo
.8 .6 .4 .2
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
PV
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Index of professionalization
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Profissionalization of campaigns for the Senate by party
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Above, the dispersion in the graph 2 is smaller than in graph 1 because most parties had just one candidate for the Senate who had rendered accounts and received votes in each state. The exceptions are DEM (Democrats) and PSOL (Socialism and Freedom Party) with two candidates in Bahia, as well as PSOL and PV (Green Party) with two candidates in Distrito Federal. For our surprise, the campaigns for the Senate in Acre all scored zero in their professionalization and some parties also scored zero in other states. Actually, as the campaigns for the Senate are the second more important disputes in the state following the governor’s office, we should expect that all the candidates would score some level of professionalization. The data we observe might also be the result of a less detailed rendering of accounts of those candidates. Some of them just mention spending with personnel or spending with salaries but do not specify to whom they paid those salaries.
In Bahia, only two out of eight parties had score zero and three parties had high scores over .50. The level of professional campaigning was lower in Distrito Federal. Not even PDT (The Democratic Labour Party) that has reelected a DF senator surpassed the .50 level. The Democrats, DEM, which faced a corruption scandal in the state before the election also scored a low level of professionalization. As expected, the parties in São Paulo had high scores of professionalization even in a very fragmented competition. It is also possible to note that the scores of the candidates for the Chamber and for the Senate of the same party do not show a clear pattern by party. In other words, having a candidate for senator with the highest score in professionalization does not mean that the candidates for the Chamber in that same state will have the most professionalized campaigns. Another attribute that may have an impact on the professionalization is the candidate’s experience. The more experienced, more professional will be the campaign. Separated between incumbents and non-incumbents, the chance of professionalization is higher in the former because elected candidates have more resources, from the mandate, to keep constant campaigning and to seek re-election. In Graph 2, below, we observe that there are differences between the two groups for both the professionalization and the modernization indexes of the campaigns for the Chamber of Deputies. Graph 2. Professionalization and modernization of incumbents’ and other candidates’ campaigns for the Chamber by state: Professionalization of campaigns for the Chamber of incumbent candidates vs. other candidates by state
Modernization of campaigns for the Chamber of incumbent candidates vs. other candidates by state
AC, BA, DF and SP
AC
BA
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
DF
.8 .6 .4 .2
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DF
be nt
th er O
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In cu m
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0
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Index of modernization
.8
1
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AC, BA, DF and SP
SP
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
With the exception of modernization in Distrito Federal, where the relationship seems to be the reverse – where incumbents’ campaigns are less modern than the other candidates –, in the other states, the pattern seems to be of more professionalization and of more modernization in the incumbents’ campaigns than in the other candidates’ campaigns. In graph 3, we see that, in general, the incumbent candidates still have campaigns that are more professional and modern than the other candidates when it comes to the elections for the Senate. Although the modernization of the campaign of the incumbent candidate in Bahia was lower than the highest score observed among the non-incumbent candidates in the same state, it followed a very similar pattern of the median distribution of the non-incumbent candidates. For Acre, we cannot actually compare those groups because there was no incumbent candidate trying reelection there.
Graph 3. Professionalization and modernization of incumbents’ and other candidates’ campaigns for the Senate by state: Professionalization of campaigns for the Senate of incumbent candidates vs. other candidates by state
Modernization of campaigns for the Senate of incumbent candidates vs. other candidates by state AC, BA, DF and SP
AC
BA
.8 .6 .4 .2
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SP
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be nt
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DF
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th er
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In cu m
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Index of modernization
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1
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AC, BA, DF and SP
SP
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
When separated between elected and non-elected, as in graph 4, the professionalization and modernization of the campaigns of the non-elected candidates for the Chamber appears to be smaller than the campaigns of the elected candidates despite the dispersion of data. In Distrito Federal and São Paulo, all elected candidates had at least some score around .20 of professionalization and modernization of campaigns. In Acre, as well, all the elected candidates had a minimum score around .20 of professionalization, although some of them may have had a zero score in modernization. Graph 4. Professionalization and modernization of campaigns for the Chamber of elected and not elected candidates by state: Professionalization of campaigns for the Chamber of elected candidates vs. non-elected candidates by state
Modernization of campaigns for the Chamber of elected candidates vs. non-elected candidates by state
AC, BA, DF and SP
AC
BA
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
DF
.8 .6 .4 .2
SP
AC
BA
El ec te d
el ec te d on N
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Index of modernization
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AC, BA, DF and SP
DF
SP
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
This pattern is also present in the campaigns for the Senate. Overall, the median level of professionalization and modernization of the campaigns are greater for the elected candidates than the non-elected ones. The exceptions are the campaigns from Acre, whose candidates scored zero in the professionalization index. In addition, the dispersion of the modernization index within the group of non-elected candidates was remarkable in Bahia and in São Paulo. We see that the maximum scores of modern campaign communications pertain to the group of non-elected instead of the group of elected candidates.
Graph 5. Professionalization and modernization of campaigns for the Senate of elected and not elected candidates by state: Modernization of campaigns for the Senate of elected candidates vs. non-elected candidates by state AC, BA, DF and SP
.8 .6 .4 .2
AC
BA
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
DF
SP
AC
DF
ed
te d El ec
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te d
ed
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ed
te d
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te d El ec
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Index of modernization
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Professionalization of campaigns for the Senate of elected candidates vs. non-elected candidates by state AC, BA, DF and SP
SP
Source: Brazil, TSE. Data organized by the author.
In the next step of this research, I intend to explore the effects of professionalization and modernization of campaigns on electoral success of candidates through multivariate analysis. An advantage of this index compared with the log of campaign spending, for example, is that it provides a measure of candidates’ spending strategy (how they spent the money) in order to receive votes and not simply the overall amount of money spent . This is an important step for the analysis because the relationship between money and votes should not be direct since votes are not for sale during elections. At least not most of them. Concluding Remarks After all, what the expenditures of candidates for the Chamber and for the Senate say about the professionalization and modernization of campaigns in Brazil? By the scrutiny of the 2010 accounts, on the one hand, we note that these processes had little impact in the configuration of campaigns for the Chamber, because the level of professionalization and modernization is quite low. On the other hand, the campaigns for the Senate are more professional and more modern and the candidates for these majoritarian seats count well more frequently on services of polling and research, for example. This configuration confirms our expectation that the majoritarian campaigns would be more professional and modern than the campaigns for the Chamber but at the same time show that they are not as professional and modern as they could be. A little bit more than one third of them had an index of professionalization equal or greater than .50 and a bit less than a third of them had an index of modernization at the same levels. The mean index of professionalization of the candidates for the Senate is 1.88 times greater than the index of the candidates for the Chamber. When it comes to the index of modernization, the candidates for the majoritarian seats have a mean 1.69 times greater in comparison to the candidates for the proportional seats. However, in some of the items the difference is even more noticeable. The mean index of the use of polling and research is six times greater among the candidates for the Senate when compared to the mean index of the candidates for the Chamber. The mean index of the employment of press aide is four times greater.
The measure of professionalization of candidates’ campaigns all together is very disperse and this dispersion increases as the number of competing candidates grows. Acre and the Federal District are the less heterogeneous contexts if compared to Bahia and São Paulo. Even within a single party, the variation is great from state to state. The condition of the candidate also seems to have an impact on the configuration of the campaigns. In general, incumbents have more professional and modern campaigns than the other candidates do. This pattern holds when we observe differences between the elected and non-elected candidates. Even though the candidates complain of not receiving support from their parties, we observed that the latter also contribute in some way to the campaigns, especially the donation of services for the production of radio and/ or TV ads, as this is a resource highly controlled by the party. Legal assistance is another item in which the parties have some role in the donation of services for the competitors. Nevertheless, in those items where the gap between the two groups is more prominent, like polling and research, press aide, the financial management of campaigns and telemarketing, the candidates rely more on money to pay for services as the payment for them predominates over the donation of services. This gap ends up to be reinforced by the parties because they contribute with more money to candidates for the Senate than to candidates for the Chamber as a proportion of their budgets (PEIXOTO, 2010). .All this information is yet to be explored in order to produce multivariate analyses that include these elements of strategy of candidates in studies investigating the effect of campaigns on the electoral success. As we have seen, there is potential for this relationship to be positive, but it is not known if it is decisive. References ABCOP. Associação Brasileira de Consultores Políticos. Available at: . Access in: 12 feb. 2014. ABRACORP. Associação Brasileira de Pesquisadores de Comunicação Organizacional e Relações Públicas. Available at: . Access in: 12 feb. 2014. ALDÉ, A. (2004), “Jornalistas e Internet: a rede como fonte de informação política”. In XXVII CONGRESSO BRASILEIRO DE CIÊNCIAS DA COMUNICAÇÃO – INTERCOM 2004, 30 de agosto a 03 de setembro de 2004. Porto Alegre. Grupo de Trabalho: NP 02 – Jornalismo. 15p. BAREL, M. S. (2007), “O marketing eleitoral e a ABCOP: história e profissionalização da comunicação política no Brasil”. In CONFERÊNCIA BRASILEIRA DE COMUNICAÇÃO E MARKETING POLÍTICO - VI POLITICOM, 08 e 09 de outubro de 2007.Santa Bárbara d’Oeste. Grupo de Trabalho: Propaganda Política: temas gerais. 12p. BRAZIL; Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Available at: . Access in: 20 may 2014. BRAZIL; Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE). Available at: . Access in: 24 may 2014. BURTON, M. J.; SHEA D. M. (2003), Campaign mode: Strategic vision in Congressional elections. Boston: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc., 179p. CERVI, E. U. (2011), “O uso do HGPE como recurso partidário em eleições proporcionais no Brasil: um instrumento de análise de conteúdo”. Opinião Pública (Campinas), v. 17, n. 1, p. 106-136.
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