Brazilian Democratic Movement

Brazilian Democratic Movement
Movimento Democrático Brasileiro
AbbreviationMDB
PresidentBaleia Rossi
Secretary-GeneralJorge Caruso
Founded4 December 1965 (original MDB)
15 January 1980 (renamed as PMDB)
19 December 2017 (altered its name back to MDB)
Registered30 June 1981 (registered as PMDB)
Dissolved20 December 1979 (original MDB)
Merger ofBrazilian Labour Party
Social Democratic Party (majority)
HeadquartersCâmara dos Deputados - Presidência do MDB, Ed. Principal sala T4 - Esplanada dos Ministérios
Brasília
Think tankFundação Ulysses Guimarães
Youth wingJuventude do MDB
Women's wingMDB Mulher
Black wingMDB Afro
LGBT wingMDB Diversidade
Membership (2023)2,043,709
IdeologyBig tent[1][2]
Economic liberalism[3]
Political positionCentre[4][5] to centre-right[6][7]
Historical:
Centre[8][9] to centre-left[10][11]
Regional affiliationCOPPPAL
ColoursMain:
  Green
Secondary:
    Yellow, red and black
Slogan"Balance Point"
TSE Identification Number15
Chamber of Deputies
42 / 513
Federal Senate
10 / 81
Governorships
3 / 27
State Assemblies
147 / 1,024
Mayors
1,022 / 5,570
City Councillors
7,825 / 56,810
Website
www.mdb.org.br

The Brazilian Democratic Movement (Portuguese: Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the most numbers of senators, mayors and city councillors,[12][13][14] always having formed a large part of the National Congress since 1988, and also has the largest number of affiliates, with 2,043,709 members as of July 2023.[15]

Originally, the MDB was founded on 1965 as part of an enforced two party system by the Brazilian military dictatorship, providing an official, if controlled, opposition. With political opening, in the early 1980s the former members of the MDB created the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (Portuguese: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, PMDB), the name by which the party was known until 2018.[16] It was the party of former Presidents of Brazil Tancredo Neves, José Sarney, Itamar Franco and Michel Temer, as well providing support for the governments of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, as well as unofficial support for the government of Jair Bolsonaro.[17]

After the redemocratization of Brazil, MDB became a big tent party without a clear ideological program, seeking to have many members from various positions and different interest groups under its wing.[18] As such, MDB has been criticized and accused of being a cronyistic "physiological party",[19][20][18] aiming at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and allow them to distribute privileges through clientelistic networks.[19][20] This has been shown by the support to multiple governing parties since the beginning of the Sixth Brazilian Republic.[19][18] As such, the MDB has been considered one of the core members of the Centrão.[21]

  1. ^ Rhodes, Sybil (2006). Social Movements and Free-Market Capitalism in Latin America. State University of New York Press. p. 117.
  2. ^ Lansford, Tom, ed. (2014). "Switzerland". Political Handbook of the World 2014. CQ Press/SAGE. p. 183.
  3. ^ "Direita ou esquerda? Análise de votações indica posição de partidos brasileiros no espectro ideológico". BBC News Brasil.
  4. ^ Tähtinen, Lauri (25 October 2022). "Brazil: Five Phenomena and Three Scenarios". Center for Strategic and International Studies. Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  5. ^ Narloch, Leandro (31 July 2020). "PMDB, o partido da malemolência". VEJA (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 31 October 2022.
  6. ^ Sara Brandellero; Derek Pardue; Georg Wink, eds. (2020). Living (Il)legalities in Brazil: Practices, Narratives and Institutions in a Country on the Edge. Routledge. ISBN 9781000057683.
  7. ^ "Michel Temer: Brazil ex-president arrested in corruption probe". BBC. 21 March 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2020. Mr Temer, from the centre-right MDB party, took over the Brazilian presidency in August 2016 following the impeachment of leftist Dilma Rousseff, a process in which he played a key role.
  8. ^ Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (Jr.), eds. (2005). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. Oxford University Press. p. 502. ISBN 9780195170559. In 1982 São Paulo's governor, Franco Montoro of the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), created the Council for Participation and Development of the Black Community.
  9. ^ Paul Freston, ed. (2008). Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America. Oxford University Press. p. 502. ISBN 9780199721245. Garotinho, however, continued in the political limelight, joining the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB; Partido do Movimento Democra ́tico Brasileiro), and positioning himself to run as the PMDB candidate in the 2006 presidential election.
  10. ^ Power, Timothy J. (2008). Kingstone, Peter (ed.). Centering Democracy?: Ideological Cleavages and Convergence in the Brazilian Political Class. University of Pittsburgh Press. p. 89. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  11. ^ Porto, Mauro P. (2008). Democratization and Election News Coverage in Brazil. Routledge. p. 253. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  12. ^ "Senadores em Exercício - Senado Federal". www25.senado.leg.br. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  13. ^ "PATRI". datapedia.info. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  14. ^ "DEM, PP e PSD aumentam número de vereadores no Brasil; MDB, PT, PSDB, PDT e PSB registram redução". G1 (in Brazilian Portuguese). 17 November 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  15. ^ "Estatísticas do eleitorado – Eleitores filiados". Archived from the original on 11 July 2014. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  16. ^ "Aprovada mudança do nome do Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB)". Tribunal Superior Eleitoral.
  17. ^ "Radar do Congresso". radar.congressoemfoco.com.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  18. ^ a b c Wells, Miriam. "Meet the Kingmakers of Brasilia". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 14 October 2022.
  19. ^ a b c Benites, Talita Bedinelli, Afonso (19 December 2017). "PMDB volta a se chamar MDB: retorno ao passado para aplacar crise de imagem". El País Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 13 October 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ a b "Centrão vive quarta encarnação, agora restrito ao fisiologismo". O Globo (in Brazilian Portuguese). 29 July 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  21. ^ "Pouco ou nada separa o MDB dos demais partidos do Centrão | Noblat". VEJA (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2 November 2022.