The PMDB’s ideological behaviour at the Chamber of Deputies in 2013

Abstract

The article aims at analysing the ideological behaviour of PMDB’s federal deputies in 2013. We depart from the idea that to set a political party specifically in a particular ideological point does not allow to grasp its heterogeneity. To achieve this goal, we present a different methodology. Law projects have been classified based on a chart of meanings built from federal deputies’ speeches of all parties. In a general way, results confirm a trend already outlined by the literature, that is, the PMDB occupies a position at the centre. However, in this text, we demonstrate essential variations on the left and right in this spectrum. In this sense, although the party can be classified at a specific point in the ideological spectrum, the main article’s finding is that this point cannot be perceived in an essentialist way. Such a point shows significant variations that need to be considered.