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Non-democratic regimes and Elite Capture: Evidence from the Brazilian Dictatorship

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  • Luis N. Meloni

Abstract

This paper investigates the existence of elite capture at local levels of government in the context of the Brazilian dictatorship, a particular interesting context because during the dictatorship the mayors of some municipalities were appointed by the regime, while others were elected directly. This is done comparing measures of inequality after redemocratization between municipalities that had appointed mayors with (a subset of) municipalities where mayors were elected directly. To overcome the issue of the selection of municipalities, a combination of geographic regression discontinuity (GRD) design with matching techniques is employed, relying on the hypothesis that the main source of selection is related to the geographic characteristics of the municipalities. The main results indicate income inequality increased more in municipalities that had mayors appointed by the regime and that was mainly due to an increase in the share of income earned by the richest. Although lack of more detailed data does not allow to explore the channels through which this wealth concentration occurred, the results are consistent with the hypothesis of elite capture.

Suggested Citation

  • Luis N. Meloni, 2015. "Non-democratic regimes and Elite Capture: Evidence from the Brazilian Dictatorship," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_41, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2015wpecon41
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    1. Yeung, Timothy Yu-Cheong, 2017. "Political philosophy, executive constraint and electoral rules," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 67-88.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Political Economy; Institutions; Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

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