When Little Doesn't Come to Many: Analysis of the distribution of public campaign resources for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in 2018

Abstract

When Little Doesn’t Come to Many: Analysis of the distribution of public campaign resources for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in 2018

The low female presence in elected positions remains a persistent problem for representative democracies. In this complex process that involves a series of factors, access to financial resources appears as one of the main barriers faced by women. In order to alleviate this difficulty, public campaign resources are, by law, directed to female candidates, but the distribution of the amounts is in the hands of the party leaders. The distributive analysis presented in this article, based on the Gini index, shows that parties concentrate resources on a few women, failing to encourage greater female participation and aiming only at maximizing seat gains.