In a political system such as Brazil’s, with three branches of government, one of the main functions of Congress is to provide checks and balances on the Executive. In simple terms, this keeps the president and his/her administration in line, stopping them from becoming too powerful in relation to the Legislative or Judicial branches. These checks and balances can come in a variety of ways, from overriding presidential vetoes to the more extreme option of launching impeachment proceedings.
Using these two congressional tools as examples, analysis of data from the last three years suggests that lawmakers have a mixed record...
