Ideology or What? Legislative Behavior in Multiparty Presidential Settings

In this paper I show that voting patterns of Brazilian legislators depart from their ideology in ways that suggest that the president plays an important role in influencing their behavior. Moreover, statistical analysis indicates that this influence is channeled through the distribution of pork and nominations to cabinet positions. Ideology not only fails to fully explain the patterns of legislative behavior observed since the return to democracy, but there is evidence that ideological behavior has declined over time.