BBB caucus: limits and possibilities to determine who makes it up
Political analysts often overestimate the number of parliamentarians who are members of the legislative branch’s thematic benches. This paper suggests some steps to measure the total number of members of supra-partisan blocs. To this end, it discusses the limitations of the variables generally used in the literature and proposes juxtaposing and combining them in order to avoid the limitation of considering any single factor sufficient to define the contingent of these groups. Furthermore, the paper points out the need to investigate other diffuse sources, such as legislative proposals, when the listed variables are not sufficient for the process of verifying names. The BBB caucus in the 56th legislature (2019-2023) was chosen for the case study in order to illustrate the procedures to be used to measure who actually acts on the parliamentary fronts.
Keywords: BBB caucus; caucuses; agriculture; evangelicals; public security.