Legislative Bargaining and Distributive Politics in Brazil:

This paper tailors general theories of distributive politics to guide an empirical analysis of the distribution of intergovernmental grants among the Brazilian states. It shows that grants are distributed in accordance with the political interests of the president, who seeks to maintain a stable, low-cost legislative coalition. States with greater legislative representation per capita receive larger grants per capita, as do states whose legislators belong to the president’s coalition. Moreover, the president appears to reward states that provided votes in recent presidential elections, and grants are correlated with the election cycle. These political factors help explain why discretionary resources are not targeted at poor regions. In conclusion, we explore implications for debates about Brazilian institutions and the broader comparative literature on the political economy of resource distribution.