Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.

The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies constitute the Brazilian Congress and are responsible for the Brazilian legislative management. Complex networks were shown to be a suitable tool to analyze this type of system. Several researches explored party dynamics in the Chamber of Deputies, however, no...

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Main Authors: Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo Junior, Diego Raphael Amancio, Roseli Aparecida Francelin Romero
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319643
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author Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo Junior
Diego Raphael Amancio
Roseli Aparecida Francelin Romero
author_facet Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo Junior
Diego Raphael Amancio
Roseli Aparecida Francelin Romero
author_sort Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo Junior
collection DOAJ
description The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies constitute the Brazilian Congress and are responsible for the Brazilian legislative management. Complex networks were shown to be a suitable tool to analyze this type of system. Several researches explored party dynamics in the Chamber of Deputies, however, no attention has been given to the Senate. Previous works that have stated the necessity of a backbone extraction methodology to be used in these types of networks also failed to define an automatic backbone extraction methodology to uncover group structure in legislative networks, reverting to heuristics or subjective approaches. In this work, we explore both legislative houses and compare them to see their differences and similarities. We also systematize an automatic backbone extraction methodology. Further, we expand on previous analyses by bringing spectrum and government x opposition analysis based on voting data. Our results show that the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have behaved differently during major events in Brazil over the second decade of the century. From the obtained results it is fair to say that the dynamics for both houses are different and that the best backbone extraction algorithm varies over time and is different for each house.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
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publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
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spelling doaj-art-88a496e4fda24ed1bed878dd01a28f212025-08-23T05:32:39ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01204e031964310.1371/journal.pone.0319643Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo JuniorDiego Raphael AmancioRoseli Aparecida Francelin RomeroThe Senate and the Chamber of Deputies constitute the Brazilian Congress and are responsible for the Brazilian legislative management. Complex networks were shown to be a suitable tool to analyze this type of system. Several researches explored party dynamics in the Chamber of Deputies, however, no attention has been given to the Senate. Previous works that have stated the necessity of a backbone extraction methodology to be used in these types of networks also failed to define an automatic backbone extraction methodology to uncover group structure in legislative networks, reverting to heuristics or subjective approaches. In this work, we explore both legislative houses and compare them to see their differences and similarities. We also systematize an automatic backbone extraction methodology. Further, we expand on previous analyses by bringing spectrum and government x opposition analysis based on voting data. Our results show that the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies have behaved differently during major events in Brazil over the second decade of the century. From the obtained results it is fair to say that the dynamics for both houses are different and that the best backbone extraction algorithm varies over time and is different for each house.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319643
spellingShingle Tiago José de Oliveira Toledo Junior
Diego Raphael Amancio
Roseli Aparecida Francelin Romero
Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
PLoS ONE
title Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
title_full Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
title_fullStr Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
title_full_unstemmed Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
title_short Complex networks applied to political analysis: Group voting behavior in the Brazilian congress.
title_sort complex networks applied to political analysis group voting behavior in the brazilian congress
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319643
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