Could collective candidacies renew Brazil’s political landscape?

Recent surveys show that 96 percent of Brazilians don’t feel represented by our current elected officials. And 89 percent of voters think that politicians are not well prepared enough to perform their duties. But while Brazilians are certainly unhappy about our political system, big parties have crafted the electoral legislation in order to preserve their positions of power. Certain groups, however, are trying to break such a monopoly.

To challenge traditional political forces, some groups have launched a model of collective candidacies. They were tested in 2016 with some success. Armed with social mobilization, bold marketing strategies, and the promise of transparency, these candidacies have an ambitious goal: to change the political system from within.

The concept is simple. A group of people promises, if elected, to exercise power as a group, rather than as sole individuals. Since this model is not recognized by the electoral legislation, only one of those people will formally be running for office. Those who defend this model state that it could help improve representative democracy and enhance the dialogue between elected officials and voters.

“The idea for collective candidacies is interesting because it combines two characteristics that are typical of today’s youth: avoidance of leaders and distributed networks,” says Moysés Pinto Neto, a philosopher and professor at the Lutheran University of Brazil.

A new paradigm of political...