Esta dissertação tem como motivação a pergunta: Como é o Poder Legislativo Municipal no Brasil? É comumente assumido que Câmaras municipais são menos importantes que o Poder Executivo para elaboração e produção de políticas nos municípios brasileiros. Argumento que este é um entendimento equivocado baseado em estudos conduzidos com poucas informações em que não existem evidências empíricas suficientes para sustentar isto. A fim de apresentar um novo e mais completo entendimento sobre as Câmaras Legislativas Municipais, analiso três tópicos. Primeiro, se as Câmaras são profissionalizadas e bem estruturadas. Segundo, o perfil sócio educacional e ocupacional dos candidatos e vereadores comparados com o da população municipal. Terceiro, o conteúdo dos projetos de lei apresentados pelos vereadores. Utilizo dados do Censo do Legislativo, do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral e de um banco de dados original, conduzo uma série de testes que incluem da estatística descritiva a modelos de regressão. A análise mostra que (1) as Câmaras Municipais são pouco profissionalizadas e parcamente estruturadas; (2) candidatos e vereadores possuem escolaridade mais alta e são provenientes de ocupações mais prestigiosas do que a média da população. Todavia, as Câmaras são as instituições representativas mais acessíveis a indivíduos das camadas mais baixas da população; (3) vereadores podem propor leis em importantes áreas e que se algumas destas áreas são muito regulamentadas (como a saúde e educação), outras não são (por exemplo, habitação e regulamentação do solo). Portanto, não é correto dizer que não existem políticas importantes no Poder Legislativo Municipal. / This dissertation has as its motivation the question: How is the Municipal Legislative Branch in Brazil? It is commonly assumed that Municipal Chambers are less important than Executive Branch to elaborate and produce policies in Brazilian municipalities. I argue this is an equivocal understanding based on studies conducted with few information and that there are not sufficient empirical evidences to sustain it. In order to present a new and more complete knowledge about Municipal Legislative Chambers, I analyze three issues. First, if the Chambers are professionalized and well structured. Second, the socio-educational and socio-occupational profiles of candidates and council members compared with the municipal population. Third, the content of the bills presented by council members. Using data from Legislative Census, Superior Electoral Court and an original dataset, I conduct a series of tests including descriptive statistics and regression models. The analysis shows that (1) Legislative Chambers are little professionalized and poorly structured; (2) candidates and council members are better educated and from more prestigious occupations than the population mean. However, they are the most accessible representative institution in Brazil for individuals from lower layers of the population; (3) council members can propose bills in important areas and if some are very regulated (such as health and education), others are not (for instance, housing and soil regulation). Therefore, it is not correct to say that there are not key policies in Municipal Legislative Branch.

Esta dissertação tem como motivação a pergunta: Como é o Poder Legislativo Municipal no Brasil? É comumente assumido que Câmaras municipais são menos importantes que o Poder Executivo para elaboração e produção de políticas nos municípios brasileiros. Argumento que este é um entendimento equivocado baseado em estudos conduzidos com poucas informações em que não existem evidências empíricas suficientes para sustentar isto. A fim de apresentar um novo e mais completo entendimento sobre as Câmaras Legislativas Municipais, analiso três tópicos. Primeiro, se as Câmaras são profissionalizadas e bem estruturadas. Segundo, o perfil sócio educacional e ocupacional dos candidatos e vereadores comparados com o da população municipal. Terceiro, o conteúdo dos projetos de lei apresentados pelos vereadores. Utilizo dados do Censo do Legislativo, do Tribunal Superior Eleitoral e de um banco de dados original, conduzo uma série de testes que incluem da estatística descritiva a modelos de regressão. A análise mostra que (1) as Câmaras Municipais são pouco profissionalizadas e parcamente estruturadas; (2) candidatos e vereadores possuem escolaridade mais alta e são provenientes de ocupações mais prestigiosas do que a média da população. Todavia, as Câmaras são as instituições representativas mais acessíveis a indivíduos das camadas mais baixas da população; (3) vereadores podem propor leis em importantes áreas e que se algumas destas áreas são muito regulamentadas (como a saúde e educação), outras não são (por exemplo, habitação e regulamentação do solo). Portanto, não é correto dizer que não existem políticas importantes no Poder Legislativo Municipal. / This dissertation has as its motivation the question: How is the Municipal Legislative Branch in Brazil? It is commonly assumed that Municipal Chambers are less important than Executive Branch to elaborate and produce policies in Brazilian municipalities. I argue this is an equivocal understanding based on studies conducted with few information and that there are not sufficient empirical evidences to sustain it. In order to present a new and more complete knowledge about Municipal Legislative Chambers, I analyze three issues. First, if the Chambers are professionalized and well structured. Second, the socio-educational and socio-occupational profiles of candidates and council members compared with the municipal population. Third, the content of the bills presented by council members. Using data from Legislative Census, Superior Electoral Court and an original dataset, I conduct a series of tests including descriptive statistics and regression models. The analysis shows that (1) Legislative Chambers are little professionalized and poorly structured; (2) candidates and council members are better educated and from more prestigious occupations than the population mean. However, they are the most accessible representative institution in Brazil for individuals from lower layers of the population; (3) council members can propose bills in important areas and if some are very regulated (such as health and education), others are not (for instance, housing and soil regulation). Therefore, it is not correct to say that there are not key policies in Municipal Legislative Branch.

This thesis analyses the process of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in Turkey by focusing on the interaction among the certain features of the Turkish political system including the attitudes of the party elite toward the enhancement of women&rsquo / s political representation. It has been demonstrated in earlier studies that one of the reasons behind women&rsquo / s low level of parliamentary representation in Turkey is the fact that the selectors in the political parties fail to support women candidates adequately in the elections. Related to that, women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment is also likely to be impeded by the unsupportive nature of the main dynamics of political system such as political culture, party system and the v electoral system. Considering the fact that these institutional and attitudinal factors are highly inter-related with each other, the insufficient number of women candidates nominated by the major social democratic party, the Republican People&rsquo / s Party in the 1990s, including the latest national elections on November 3rd, 2002 calls for an analysis of not only the attitudes of the RPP selectors toward positive discrimination mechanisms such as the quotas for women but also of the relevant party institutional factors rooted in the Turkish political system. The study contends that the RPP&rsquo / s women-friendly party culture and selectors&rsquo / positive perspectives towards women&rsquo / s political integration are not sufficient factors for the promotion of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The weakness of the intra-party democracy in the RPP which is particularly the result of the oligarchic structure and the problems with institutionalization significantly impede women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment within the party. The study has found that the low level of women&rsquo / s legislative recruitment in the RPP is a consequence of the interaction between the institutional and attitudinal factors within the RPP which perpetuates patriarchal elite oligarchy in the nomination process. The documented gap between the RPP&rsquo / s party rhetoric and practice in this study is found as the reflection of the party&rsquo / s problems in internalizing social democratic values.