Congress, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and the Supreme Court

Sample Solution

  Congress: The major strength of Congress is its legislative power. Congress is responsible for creating and passing laws which affects the lives of citizens on a daily basis. With its ability to both introduce legislation, propose amendments, and pass bills into law, this body has the authority to shape society in significant ways. Such power makes it an invaluable asset when it comes to promoting progressive policies that can create positive change in people's lives and bring attention to pressing issues - such as healthcare reform or immigration reform - that need urgent solutions.

Following the trend of most democratic regimes around the globe, Brazil transitioned from an authoritarian governing system to a democratic system after rectifying the Brazilian Constitution of 1988. Currently, Brazil is considered to be a democratic republic with a bicameral legislative system of an upper house chamber and a lower house chamber, whose seats are filled based on federalist electoral rules. While these rules were created with the purpose of representative equality, the results have stirred controversy over Brazil’s electoral efficiency and effectiveness. Since Brazil’s democracy is fairly young, it is difficult to discern what the long-term effects of the electoral system will be. Some political scientists pose the question of what consequences an open-list proportional system would impose on the United States if they adopted a parallel election system. Yet, this hypothetical question means questioning one form of democracy over another, despite the fact that the term “democracy” has yet to obtain a firm definition, leads scholars to tip-toe around the subject. While one must walk on eggshells, it is a question worth asking and can provide interesting insights into future democratic possibilities. As previously stated, Brazilian legislature is comprised of an upper chamber, the Senate, or Senado, and a lower Chamber of Deputies, or Câmara dos Deputados. Formally, the Senate contains 81 seats, where three senators are chosen from each of the 27 federal states to ensure equal representation. In the Chamber of Deputies, 513 seats are chosen based on the open-list proportional representation, or open-list PR, the electoral system instituted within Brazilian politics. As stated by J. Tyler Dickovick and Jonathan Eastwood in Comparative Politics, “this system allows each voter to select a specific candidate and then attempts to achieve proportionality by aggregating the votes across parties,” (Dickovick/Eastwood, 209). In Brazil and European nations, open-list PR features the opportunity for political parties to gain house support from the var