Federalism, Party Politics and Coalition Dynamics 1 André Borges Universidade de Brasília Abstract This chapter analyzes how multilevel elections, strong sub-national governments and decentralized electoral rules shape the workings of Brazil's democratic institutions. It seeks to answer two major questions. First, to what extent have institutions adopted by the 1988 Constitution created effective incentives for party nationalization and integration and, therefore, for organization of party competition around the dispute over the national executive? Second, what is the impact of multilevel elections on electoral coordination and party fragmentation in congressional races? The core argument is that the institutional mix chosen by the drafters of Brazil's 1988 Constitution creates cross-cutting incentives. Concurrent presidential, national legislative and state elections since 1994 tend to strengthen presidential coattails and the related incentives for party coordination around presidential campaigns, while extensive presidential legislative powers facilitate centralization of the policy-making process. However, at the same these institutions likely foster the organization of a nationalized party system and effective intergovernmental coordination, incentives and opportunities provided by multilevel elections in the context of autonomous sub-national party branches and highly permissive electoral rules allow for the survival and growth of poorly integrated, office-seeking party organizations organized around sub-national races. The chapter concludes that Brazil’s federalism weakens the connection between presidential and legislative races, while at the same time fostering high levels of party fragmentation, therefore increasing the costs of coalition formation. 1 This is an unrevised version of the chapter I prepared for the Routledge Handbook of Brazilian Politics (February 2018). The full reference is below: Borges, André (2018). “Federalism, Party Politics and Coalitions Dynamics”. In: Ames, Barry (ed). Routledge Handbook of Brazilian Politics. New York: Routledge.