How Brazilian parties spread across the political spectrum

In several countries, voters only need to know the name of a political party to find out how it leans both in terms of economic and social issues. In the UK, for instance, voters know that the Conservative Party is – well, conservative. For Brazilian parties, though, it’s hard to apply that same logic.

Let’s take an example: PTB – the Brazilian Labor Party – is a right-wing political family. It inherited the name from a party created in 1945 by supporters of President Getulio Vargas. However, it bears no resemblance to the original party.

It got even harder after last year, when a trend emerged in Brazilian politics: changing party names for “slogans.” One such example is PTdoB (Labor Party of...