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Legislative Professionalization In Brazil: Causes And Effects Of Municipal Chambers Professionalization, Patrick Silva

Patrick Silva

Although professionalization is one of the key-elements for the development of legislative work and career, it has been explored almost exclusively in the U.S. environment. In this paper, I analyze legislative professionalization in Brazil. My first goal is to examine the level of professionalization in the Brazilian municipal legislative chambers and to explore some hypotheses as to what produces such results. Afterwards, I turn my focus to the effects of professionalization. Does professionalization have an effect on the number of bills introduced by legislators; Is the percentage of laws originating in the Legislative Branch affected by professionalization? In order to …