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Emotional Rhetoric and Political Competition Under Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from Brazilian Congressional Speeches

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  • Raphael Corbi
  • Alan Funtowicz

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of political competition and emotional rhetoric on congressional discourse in the context of Brazil`s transition from a two-party to a multi-party system during the late stages of its military dictatorship. Drawing on historical Congressional archives, we built a comprehensive database of parliamentary speeches from 1975 to 1986. Our analysis focuses on a political reform that intensified opposition party competition during the re-democratization process, revealing a notable increase in the use of negative emotional rhetoric by the primary opposition party. These findings highlight how political competition shapes non-policy aspects of party strategies and demonstrate the effectiveness of using natural language processing methods to analyze political speech.

Suggested Citation

  • Raphael Corbi & Alan Funtowicz, 2025. "Emotional Rhetoric and Political Competition Under Authoritarian Regimes: Evidence from Brazilian Congressional Speeches," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2025_11, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    • Handle: RePEc:spa:wpaper:2025wpecon11
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    File URL: http://www.repec.eae.fea.usp.br/documentos/Corbi_Funtowicz_11WP.pdf
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    JEL classification:

    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State
    • C55 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis

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