Determinantes do comportamento particularista de legisladores estaduais brasileiros

This article focuses on the behavior of legislators in twelve States of Brazil. The aim was to analyze the effects produced by: 1) degree of electoral and legislative competition; 2) the ideological position of the State legislators' parties; 3) types of voter constituency; and 4) types of consistent supporters of State legislators in relation to the degree of their particularist behavior. The study drew on the results of a survey conducted in twelve States of Brazil, besides secondary data from the 2006 elections. The analysis used multiple linear regression models. The main observations related to: (a) the positive effect of regional interest representation and consistent regional supporters on particularist behavior and (b) the increased likelihood of particularist behavior among State legislators belonging to parties on the right of the political spectrum