What Averts Black and Browns of Political Representation? A 2014 Legislative Election Analysis

Even a casual observer of Brazilian politics perceive the exclusion of blacks and browns from the Brazilian decision-making arenas. Nevertheless, the absence of records on the color/race of Brazilian politicians always difficult evaluating this underrepresentation and its possible causes. However, since the 2014 elections, the Superior Electoral Court computes the race/color of registered candidates, partially circumventing these difficulties. In this article, we use these data to gauge how underrepresented blacks and browns are in the Lower House and, above all, test some explanatory hypotheses of this phenomenon. Blacks and browns have reduced electoral chances compared to those of whites because of multiple factors: source class, access to campaign resources and competitive party structures. All this suggests that measures that seek to make the most diverse political representation should consider the complexity of the obstacles to the black and brown population in Brazil.