Financiamento de campanha e lobbying empresarial nas Comissões Permanentes da Câmara dos Deputados

This study investigates the performance of interest groups in standing committees from the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, in the 2011-2015 legislature. It is based on the premise that two activities are the main strategies of these groups to influence the legislative process: corporate campaign financing and lobbying activities. For the empirical analysis, four committees were selected: Economic Development, Industry, Trade and Services (CDEICS); Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural Development (CAPADR); Finance and Taxation (CFT); and Labor, Administration and Public Service (CTASP). The methodology involves network analysis and descriptive statistics. The results show that, within committees, the expression of organized interests was revealed in two ways. As for campaign financing, we observed in the CAPADR a bias in the financing of its members by companies from economic sectors potentially affected by its decisions. In the other committees, corporate funding is high, but the bias cannot be generalized. As for lobbying, we noticed the centrality of business interest groups in the policy networks formed around the committees. But the business community does not have equal centrality in all committees. In arenas such as the CTASP, businessmen lose prominence to the workers' central unions and to the powerful civil servants' unions. The protagonism of business groups, however, is verified in committees relevant to economic activity, such as the CDEICS and the CFT.