Um estudo sobre o União Brasil: análise sobre sua origem e sua estrutura organizacional

Abstract

In 2022, the new political organization União Brasil was registered with the Superior Electoral, resulting from the merger of the Democratas (DEM) and the Partido Social Liberal (PSL). Given the emergence of this new party on the brazilian political scene, the general objective of the study is to analyze the origin of União Brasil and its organizational structure. The specific objectives include the development of a theoretical-methodological alternative for the analysis of party mergers, the analysis of the institutional factors that influenced the emergence of União Brasil, the investigation of the political factors that explain the emergence of the party, the analysis of its organizational structure, as well as the study of the dominant coalition at the national level and in the state bodies of Bahia, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco and São Paulo. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, the case study method was adopted, which allows an in-depth analysis of the object of research based on multiple sources and techniques. The research was divided into four methodological stages. The first stage consisted in developing a theoretical-methodological discussion based on authors such as Duverger (1970), Panebianco (2005), Godbout and Bélanger (2005) and Coffé and Torenvlied (2008), analyzing studies on political parties, party typology and the different approaches to the emergence of new parties. The second stage involved the study of electoral and party regulations, with documentary analysis and the use of descriptive statistics based on TSE data, considering the main regulatory changes that have affected the political-party scenario. The third stage focused on investigating the political factors related to the merger by analyzing electoral results, party ideologies, intra-party and inter-party relations, using techniques such as content analysis, documentary analysis and descriptive statistics. Finally, the paper analyzed the organizational structure of União Brasil, including the composition of the dominant coalitions of party organizations at the national and state levels, a comparison of the number of DEM, PSL and União Brasil members, and the formation of candidate lists in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The final considerations point to a significant institutional incentive for the party merger, as well as the strategic role of party political leaders in the process of forming the new party. In terms of organizational structure, the top leadership of the DEM was identified as the organizational preponderance in the new party.