%0 Journal Article
%T Assessing the Strength of Pentecostal Churches¡¯ Electoral Support: Evidence from Brazil
%A F¨¢bio Lacerda
%J Journal of Politics in Latin America
%@ 1868-4890
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1866802X1801000201
%X Since the 1980s, the number of Pentecostal candidates elected to the Brazilian legislatures has grown remarkably. Literature has argued that the phenomenon is related to Pentecostal churches¡¯ support for particular candidates. To date, however, this claim has been based only on ethnographies or studies relying on a few cases of elected candidates. Drawing from a new data set of Evangelical (Protestant) candidates for the Federal Chamber of Deputies and state legislative assemblies, I try to answer the following questions: Do Pentecostal candidates raise fewer campaign resources than other candidates? What is the effect of being a Pentecostal candidate on the vote in Brazilian legislative elections? Is the structure of the church relevant to this effect? Using OLS regression models, I show that being a Pentecostal has a negative, though not significant effect on campaign spending. Additionally, there is a positive statistical relationship between being a Pentecostal and receiving votes, and between having the support of more centralized churches and receiving votes. Qualitative evidence of six Pentecostal politicians who lost their churches¡¯ support at some point between elections, attempted reelection, and performed considerably worse than before reinforces the importance of having the support of a Pentecostal church
%K Brazil
%K elections
%K Evangelicals
%K Pentecostals
%K Brasil
%K elei£¿£¿es
%K evang¨¦licos
%K pentecostais
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1866802X1801000201