Political Parties in Brazil

This article lists political parties in Brazil.

Brazil has a multi-party system with numerous political parties sharing the vote, in which no single party has a chance of gaining power alone, so that they must work with each other to form coalition governments. The ideologies of the different parties are not always universally adhered to, as many of them are in fact loose coalitions of local and individual leaderships.

Above the broad range of political parties in Brazilian Parliament since there is no election threshold, the Workers' Party (PT), the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) and the Democrats (DEM) together control the absolute majority of seats in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, and effectively have dominated Brazilian political landscape since the returning of democracy in 1985. Smaller parties often make alliances with at least one of these four major parties.

Since 1982 Brazilian political parties are given a number to make easier for illiterate people to vote. Initially, it was a one-digit number: 1 for PDS, 2 for PDT, 3 for PT, 4 for PTB, and 5 for PMDB. When it became clear that there was going to be more than nine parties, a two-digit number was assigned, with the first five parties having a "1" added to their former one-digit number (PDS becoming number 11, PDT 12, PT 13, PTB 14, and PMDB 15). Often political parties change their names but retain their number.