REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY IN BRAZIL: AN ANALYSIS OF THE PERFORMANCE OF CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES IN LIGHT OF THE DEVELOPMENT INDICES OF THEIR STATES AND REGIONS

A DEMOCRACIA REPRESENTATIVA NO BRASIL: UMA ANÁLISE DA ATUAÇÃO DOS DEPUTADOS FEDERAIS FRENTE AOS ÍNDICES DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE SEUS ESTADOS E A REGIÃO GEOGRÁFICA QUE OCUPAM

Purpose:  This study seeks to verify whether the performance of Brazilian Congressional Representatives is related to MHDI and GDP per capita indices and the regions they represent.

Methodology:  Regarding the performance of the parliamentarians, the data used were those made available by the Transparência Brasil portal and analyzed using the multivariate exploratory non-hierarchical cluster analysis technique K-means. Federative Units were divided into clusters according to the similarities they presented with respect to the variables that made up the analysis.

Findings:  After the analyses, we were able to determine that there is no relation of equivalence between the performance of representatives in Congress and the observed research development indices (MHDI and GDP per capita) with states of different regions and quite distinct conditions of development making up the same group of analysis.

Originality/value:  The researched data, or even the identification of transparency actions demonstrates the wide variety of analysis possibilities that are available in terms of discussions of the performance of political agents and their respective returns for the population. We would suggest that future studies can use other data or other reports displayed in the transparency portals of various spheres of government. Other research possibilities can be developed based on qualitative analyses of the effective representativity of the projects proposed by these representatives of the people.

Keywords :
Democracy; Representative democracy; Representative democracy in Brazil; Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI); Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita