Can you revise & add more flesh to my article template based on the readings?

Lee 2

Chaerin Lee (student ID#: 1120 19 0006)

Introductory Seminar E-1

ILA Spring 2022

Article Analysis Template 2

1. Bibliographic citation (use APA style):

Stephan, A. (2000). Brazil’s Decentralized Federalism: Bringing Government Closer to

the Citizens?. Daedalus, 129(2), pp. 145-169.

1. Article’s subject—what is the question, puzzle, or problem examined?:

How does decentralization affect democracy, specifically Brazil’s decentralization movement?

3. Main Thesis

Thesis statement (quote article):

“Are there, for example, some types of decentralization, such as found embedded in Brazil’s 1988 federal Constitution, that worsen the quality of democratic politics rather than improve it? This is the question I explore in this essay” (Stephan 2000).

Where thesis first appears (page and location):

p. 145, the third paragraph of page 145 or the (almost) beginning of the introduction

4. Variables – (separate author/s thesis from alternative hypotheses)--

Independent variable(s) (how are the concepts measured):

Dependent variable (how are the concepts measured):

5. Method used (research design -- see Lim) + method how they conducted the research)

The Most Similar Systems (MSS) when comparing the U.S. and Brazil’s federalism in the section “The Control of Constitutionality and the Demos.” Stephan first acknowledges that the U.S. and Brazil politically hold many similarities; however, throughout the section, he demonstrates the differences in the details of their political system(e.g. Brazil does not implement the U.S.’s four principles of judicial review, such as “no writ of certiorari”), which confirms that Brazil’s government is more ‘demos-constraining’ than the U.S. one.

6. Findings

- In 1988, Brazil’s new constitution declared the promotion of decentralization, which later backfired on the Cardoso regime. However, Cardoso’s expansion of primary education as a part of the decentralization movement was quite successful.

- As mentioned above, the United States and Brazil politically share many similarities since they both employ federalism, which is originally more ‘demos-constraining’ than other democratic systems. Compared to the U.S. federalism, which is deemed as the “standard model of democratic federalism,” Brazil’s federalism is more ‘demos-constraining.’ This has caused some issues in Brazilian society. For example, since there is “no writ of certiorari (the right not to review a case)”, the Brazilian Supreme Court has a heavy workload although their decisions have ripple effects: “The Brazilian Supreme Court had to decide on 37,555 cases in 1997, and almost none of their decisions were generically binding” (pp. 152-153). Therefore, the Supreme Court holds less power to sanction the law.

- Stephan (2000) acknowledges two possibilities of how decentralization would affect a country: (1) More citizens would be benefited from the government’s system and (2) the distribution of power would be unbalanced since decentralization could provide more power to local elites.

(5. Quality of Article – if you can – don’t spend too much time here)

A strength:

A weakness: