The hijacking of politics: Impacts of parliamentary amendments for democracy, federalism, and public health in Brazil

Abstract

This study examines the implications of the growing centrality of parliamentary amendments (PAs) in Brazil’s public budget, with emphasis on their repercussions on the political system, the federal arrangement, and health policies. Drawing on a literature review and documentary analysis, the research traces the trajectory of PAs, from their original function of strengthening the legislative branch to their consolidation as instruments of political bargaining and power redistribution. It argues that the expansion of PAs has triggered an institutional shift from the executive to the legislative branch, deepening distortions in budgetary governance, in the balance of powers, and in intergovernmental dynamics. Judicialization of conflicts, the fragmentation of planning, and the weakening of the executive’s coordinating capacity emerge as consequences of this process. In the health sector, the mandatory execution of PAs and their distributive logic, detached from technical criteria, have compromised equitable funding and the sustainability of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS). The article concludes that the current model of budget allocation, based on mandatory and opaque implementation procedures, undermines the state’s capacity to formulate public policies, already weakened by fiscal austerity measures, exacerbates regional inequalities, fosters clientelism, and threatens the democratic foundations underlying budgetary policy.