The business elite and democratic institutions: political culture, trust and political action patterns

• Published in: Opinião pública : publicaçao do CESOP 2012-11, Vol.18 (2), p.452-469
• Main Author: Costa, Paulo Roberto Neves
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Subjects: Brazil; Democracy; Economic Elites; Enterprises; Leadership; Political Action; Political Culture; Political Institutions; Political Representation; Satisfaction; Trust; Unions
• ISSN: 0104-6276

The aim of this article is to analyze the concept of democracy, the relationship with democratic institutions, the trust placed in them and some aspects of the patterns of political action of the business elite in Brazil nowadays. We use the notion of the business elite, composed by those who are engaged in the direction of representative entities of various sectors of business, therefore, not exactly the criteria of economic power or direction of large companies, as is usual in studies on economic elites, but that of political representation: the leaders who were elected by members of the entities engaged in the business and articulate the interests of their constituents. Data come from interviews with directors of entities from various sectors distinct nature (trade union and associative) and range of action (state or national), checking not only the opinions but also their justifications or rationale, giving a qualitative aspect to data, rarely used in studies of political culture. We realized that the business elite has a strong adherence to democracy higher than the general population, it is favorable to political participation and a high degree of trust and satisfaction with Brazilian democratic institutions. Adapted from the source document.