Brazilian Left at the beginning of the 21st Century. From Political Alternative to Cartel of Power?

The thesis deals with the transformation of the Brazilian Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT). Its aim is to identify reasons for more than a decade interval between the renewal of direct presidential election under the universal suffrage and the victory of the left in a society that is marked by extreme inequality of wealth distribution. The second issue which is covered is how the party managed to consolidate power and keep it for three consecutive terms. Using modified concepts of mass, catch-all and cartel party the author tests the hypothesis that the electoral victory of the left was conditioned by the domination of the leftist side of political spectrum by the PT, as a result of building a mass (program-oriented) party, which subsequently tailored its campaign to focus on centrist voters (shift to the catch-all format, or votes-oriented party). The maintenance of power is based on crafting oversized coalitions with parties across the political spectrum, i.e. including the right-wing parties. However, these coalitions are created only to support government; the Workers' Party never forms electoral coalitions with prominent rightest parties. Furthermore, the thesis discusses the functioning of the so-called coalitional presidentialism, the typologies of current leftist governments in Latin America and also presents the basic elements of the Brazilian political system.