Brazilian Political Science Review

11-36

Authors: Adam Przeworski

The article argues that economic inequality inevitably generates politicalinequality, which in turn reproduces economic inequality. Basic concepts areintroduced first along with strong caveats concerning the quality of the crossnationaldata on income distributions; historical patterns of income inequalityare summarized next, and with these preliminaries, a distinction is made betweenredistribution of consumption at a particular time and equalization of incomeearning capacities over time. Following this economic considerations, the articlediscussion moves to political factors that may block redistributions.

53-69

Authors: Francisca Guedes

This paper is concerned with two things: finding an objective and easilyquantifiable measure of government efficiency and testing possible determinantsof government quality. As measures of government efficiency, we used ratios ofinfant mortality rate to health expenditures as a percentage of GDP, and ratios ofdrop out and illiteracy rates to education expenditures as a percentage of GDP.We assume that government efficiency in providing health and education servicesdepends on economic, political and cultural factors.

90-112

Authors: Alfredo Alejandro Gugliano & Andréia Orsato

This article seeks to further the debate on the political participation of women in the framework of a democratic political regime. Foremost, it analyzes women’s representation as elected legislators in Brazilian state legislatures. Accordingly, the article draws on the contributions made thus far by some women authors – linked to a theoretical framework that, as the article unfolds, is presented as the feminist theory – as regards the critique of the model of democracy prevailing in Western societies. Next, we present and discuss an array of data on women’s inclusion in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, encompassing all female state representatives elected since 1951, when the first gaúcha, as those born in the state like to call themselves, woman legislator took office. The findings in this article seek to advance knowledge of the history of women’s political parliamentary participation, given the scarcity of information on the theme in the context of the aforementioned state legislature, as well as pointing out the main features of female participation in the Rio Grande do Sul State Legislature.