Secular performance of the bancada religiosa in the Chamber of Deputies (2011-2018)

Abstract

The Brazilian Political Science's literature demonstrates that the bancada religiosa acts in the Chamber of Deputies in order to defend typically conservative agendas linked to Christian morals and traditions. However, there are few works on the behavior of the members of the bancada religiosa in debates outside these themes. This article analyzes the performance of charismatic evangelicals and Catholics during the 54th and 55th legislatures, emphasizing their interest in secular agendas. To this end, we created a database through Data Science and webscraping, and the data were analyzed with the help of Python and R software. The data set includes, among other aspects, the participation in commissions and the bills filed by religious deputies in the period. It was possible to verify that there are agendas that go beyond the theme of customs, revealing interest in certain agendas normally considered as secular, but very important to the bancada religiosa.