Santos, Alice Almeida Barreto; 0009-0003-3283-0295; https://lattes.cnpq.br/7065514181912244
Resumo:
In 2022, the new political organization União Brasil was registered with the Superior
Electoral, resulting from the merger of the Democratas (DEM) and the Partido Social Liberal
(PSL). Given the emergence of this new party on the brazilian political scene, the general
objective of the study is to analyze the origin of União Brasil and its organizational structure.
The specific objectives include the development of a theoretical-methodological alternative
for the analysis of party mergers, the analysis of the institutional factors that influenced the
emergence of União Brasil, the investigation of the political factors that explain the
emergence of the party, the analysis of its organizational structure, as well as the study of the
dominant coalition at the national level and in the state bodies of Bahia, Minas Gerais,
Pernambuco and São Paulo. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, the case study
method was adopted, which allows an in-depth analysis of the object of research based on
multiple sources and techniques. The research was divided into four methodological stages.
The first stage consisted in developing a theoretical-methodological discussion based on
authors such as Duverger (1970), Panebianco (2005), Godbout and Bélanger (2005) and Coffé
and Torenvlied (2008), analyzing studies on political parties, party typology and the different
approaches to the emergence of new parties. The second stage involved the study of electoral
and party regulations, with documentary analysis and the use of descriptive statistics based on
TSE data, considering the main regulatory changes that have affected the political-party
scenario. The third stage focused on investigating the political factors related to the merger by
analyzing electoral results, party ideologies, intra-party and inter-party relations, using
techniques such as content analysis, documentary analysis and descriptive statistics. Finally,
the paper analyzed the organizational structure of União Brasil, including the composition of
the dominant coalitions of party organizations at the national and state levels, a comparison of
the number of DEM, PSL and União Brasil members, and the formation of candidate lists in
the 2018 and 2022 elections. The final considerations point to a significant institutional
incentive for the party merger, as well as the strategic role of party political leaders in the
process of forming the new party. In terms of organizational structure, the top leadership of
the DEM was identified as the organizational preponderance in the new party.