Is Brazil's Chamber of Deputies the 'people's house' and the Senate the 'elite club'?

A common perception in Brazilian politics holds that the Chamber of Deputies, elected through a proportional system, more faithfully mirrors the nation than the Senate, which is seen as an elite club due to its smaller size and winner-take-all elections. However, new research from INCT ReDem, analyzing data from seven elections between 1998 and 2022, suggests this long-held belief may be a myth.

The study examined the declared professions of nearly 3,900 elected deputies and senators. While profession is an imperfect proxy for social class, it offers a reasonable approximation of an elected official's social standing. The research focused on the variety of professions represented and their distribution within each legislative body. To account for the significant size difference between the Chamber (over 500 members) and the Senate (27 or 54 members), the study simulated smaller Chambers to match the Senate's size for a fair comparison.

When size disparities were neutralized, the study revealed that the diversity of professions in both chambers is remarkably similar. In most years, the Senate even showed a slightly better balance in the distribution of professions, avoiding over-concentration in fields like law or business. This suggests that the Chamber's apparent greater diversity is an artifact of its sheer size, not necessarily a reflection of a more socially open or representative body.

Furthermore, the research found that ideology plays a less significant role in professional representation than expected. Both left- and right-leaning parties tend to elect individuals from similar professional backgrounds, such as doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople. Contrary to expectations, left-wing parties did not disproportionately recruit from labor or union ranks, nor did right-wing parties exclusively draw from business owners.

A more striking trend observed in both houses is the rise of the 'career politician.' The proportion of elected officials who declared their profession as 'politician' before entering office surged from 25% in 1998 to 55% in 2022 in the Chamber, and from 20% to 52% in the Senate. This indicates a growing concentration of power within a political class that identifies primarily with the profession of politics itself. The study concludes that electoral reforms aimed at changing vote formulas are unlikely to foster greater social heterogeneity in Congress. Instead, the real filter lies earlier in the process, within political parties, which control candidate selection and campaign resources.