The allocation of parties in the ideological spectrum from the parliamentary action

Resumo

Although there are several ways of classifying the parties on a Left-Right (L-R) scale, the analysis of the actual behavior is one of the most important methods since it’s based on what is fundamental: the action of the political agents. Therefore, this article intends to compare the traditional classification of the Brazilian parties by analyzing 24 ideological roll-call votes held in the Chamber of Deputies from 2011 to 2015. A general classification was elaborated based on the actual behavior in the total number of votes analyzed and jointly the positioning in classical themes and in the so-called "new" themes. Some important dissonances with what is commonly envisioned by Political Science draw the attention. Workers Party (PT) remains on the left exceeded only by Party of Socialism and Liberty (PSOL). Democrats (DEM) is not the party to the right of the political spectrum, whereas Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) places itself to the right of Brazilian Social Democrat Party (PSDB) and close to DEM which behaves like a right-wing party.