ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book assesses political institutions and reviews the extensive literature on coalitional presidentialism, focusing on the concept structure of majority coalition cabinets and on the operational indicators adopted to measure the political makeup of cabinets and cabinet appointments and their impacts on executive policy making. It examines campaign spending in elections for federal representatives between 2002 and 2014. The book analyzes the interplay of multilevel elections, strong federalism, and decentralized electoral rules. It offers a comprehensive picture of the attitudes of Brazilians toward corruption both at the highest levels of government and in everyday life. The book focuses on political participation, both electoral and contestatory. It considers the Bolsa Familia program through the optic of policy design, explaining how a program could be designed so that the poor would benefit without the usual payoffs to local and state politicians.
