Brazil’s legislatures can be labyrinthine and ineffective. There is a push to change this

Saying that Congress is dysfunctional is one of the biggest clichés in Brazilian politics. Only 24 percent of voters trust the work of Brazil’s 513 lower house members and 81 senators, and it is safe to assume even fewer understand the complicated calculations needed to determine how many seats each party gets in the lower house.

The perception that Congress is simply made up of ivory-tower politicians is reinforced by the out-of-touch benefits lawmakers enjoy. According to a recent study, each Brazilian member of Congress costs the country USD 5 million a year.

That is 528 times the average annual household income, the highest ratio among 33 countries surveyed. Argentina is a distant second with members of Congress costing the country 228 times the local average annual income. 

Polls show that many Brazilians do not believe this is money well spent. And while members of Congress may be the victims of their work being oversimplified, the truth is that legislative efficiency is hard to measure. Even more so in a country where the legislative branch is hyper-fragmented. However, that is not to say attempts have not been made. 

The Regulatory Impact Assessment of legislative projects — which includes criteria for examining the impact of a law in terms of costs, benefits, consequences, and support for other state programs — has long been used by members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), but is not regulated in Brazil. 

One of the most effective cases of legislative analysis in the country was carried out by the University of São Paulo’s law school within the São Paulo city council. An initial report analyzing the council’s legislative activity between 2000 and 2020 found that more than 60 percent of the laws approved in those...