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Challenging the perception that the Brazilian legislatures of the post-transitional period constitute a marginal institution in policy and decision-making, this study takes into account the politics of executive-legislative relations as an analytically distinct research target. It departs from the proposition that, in contexts of low degree of institutionalization, the limits and reaches of congressional-executive powers rely upon variations of time and is relational to the issue and policy-area at stake. In this vein, by developing an appropriate methodology that combines a classificatory scheme of legislation initiated by both branches, from 1985 to 1996, with extensive interviewing, and a survey questionnaire, this study aims at contributing to further our understanding of a crucial factor that affects the institutionalization of democracy in Brazil: the way presidents and congresses interact in practice.

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Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Notre Dame (USA). Professor of Management in Public Policies at the School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities of the University of Sao Paulo (EACH/USP). Fellow at the Center of Public Policies Study (NUPPs/USP). Recent Publication: Políticas Públicas (SÆo Paulo, SP: Publifolha, 2010).

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