Dismemberment of Municipalities: Impacts on the Municipal Legislative

Vol. 37 No. 4 (2017)

Oct-Dec / 2017
Published February 26, 2020
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))
PDF-Portuguese (Português (Brasil))

How to Cite

Mattos, Enlinson, and Lucas Garcez. 2017. “Dismemberment of Municipalities: Impacts on the Municipal Legislative”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 37 (4):832-49. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572017v37n04a10.

Dismemberment of Municipalities: Impacts on the Municipal Legislative

Enlinson Mattos
Professor da Escola de Economia de São Paulo – FGV,
Lucas Garcez
Mestre em Economia e Direito da Fundação Getulio Vargas,
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 37 No. 4 (2017), Oct-Dec / 2017, Pages 832-849

Abstract

 This paper evaluates the effects of the division of municipalities on the elections in the composition in the municipal legislative chambers, where we try to identify the gerrymandering hypothesis, that is, change of the composition of the power in these municipalities involved with the dismemberment. Our results suggest that there is (i) a positive impact of dismemberment on the concentration of seats in a few parties in the city councils in the municipalities of origin, and (ii) a reduction of participation in the municipality of origin of minority partieis, concomitantly with an increase of concentration in the chamber of the new municipalities of these parties.

JEL Classification: H75; H76.

 


Keywords: Dismemberment municipality city council elections gerrymandering cracking packing