Electoral Finance Networks and Capital Groups in the Chamber of Deputies Commission on Environment and Sustainable Development

Abstract

The article analyzes the electoral finance networks of the federal deputies who composed the Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development - CESD during the 54th Legislature (2011-2014). The objective is to answer the following questions: what shape does the finance structure of CESD members assume? Which groups of political-financial capital are formed within the network? The Electoral Data Repository of the Superior Electoral Court (SEC) and the Commission reports available on the Chamber of Deputies website provided basic data for the study, on which we applied the Social Network Analysis (SNA) methodology. We built the networks with software Gephi and after eliminating the superficial layers they revealed a topology showing a cohesive structure, in which common donors interconnect most of the nodes. The results make clear the formation of communities within the CESD, based on a search for identity, whether partisan or by common interests.