Coalition strategies of leftist parties in Brazil: An analysis of the elections for governor (1986-2010)

Abstract

Elections for governor offer a privileged moment to observe not only party strategies in the face of the challenge of putting together electoral forces, but also to facilitate a description of electorate behavior and their options. The main objective of the present work is at first to outline a profile of the coalitionist strategies of the leftist parties: PT, PDT, PSB, PC do B, PCB, PPS, PS, PV, PSTU, PSOL, PCO, PMN, PHS, PH which participated in the elections for State governor (1986-2010). Secondly, this paper intends to evaluate the impact of the “ideological consistency” variable of the coalitions on electoral performance.