Political leadership in Brazil: characteristics and institutional issues

Abstract

The political leader embodies the political interests in dispute, around his image are built the political relations. Political leadership can be exerted on many forms and assume different shapes, what puts on debate the meaning and role of political leadership. On the political disputes on democratic societies, or even on non-democratic societies, the political leader is expressive inside the contemporary political processes, because they canalize the political actions and conduct the political and economic operations and negotiations. Having our theoretical and methodological experience acquired through studies, theses and dissertations orientation as a base, we expand the concern on this research to deepen the theme of political leadership, recovering the historical appearance of these Brazilians leaders, questioning their signification and trying to understand their historical meaning and the personal characteristics of these leaders. To analyze the leaders proposed on this project, will be done mappings that respect the historical period, the medias available in each period and their relation with these leaders, in a way that we will investigate the audiovisual and textual productions presented in government or independent newspapers, magazines, files from radios and televisions, movies, blogs, websites and social networks. This analysis is suggested so it is possible to evaluate media development and image construction of the political leaders in Brazil. Possible images that elucidate the way that political actors applied the means of communication to affirm their condition as leaders and their political actions will be emphasized. (AU)