INTRODUCTION

I have argued that Brazilian deputies do not aim to build a political career within the Chamber of Deputies. Instead, they are “progressively” ambitious and focus their energies while in the Chamber on ways to continue their careers outside of the Chamber. In this chapter I provide evidence of another manifestation of deputies' progressive ambition, what I call “Congressional Hot Seats.” I explore how deputies rotate out of the Chamber to take national-, state-, or municipal-level political positions immediately following their election as Deputy, during their terms. In recent legislatures, over one-third of all sitting deputies have either rotated out or have manifested a desire to find a position outside of the Chamber during the term, and we might suppose that the percentage of deputies who would like to rotate out is actually much higher – a notion that politicians support when interviewed. If deputies were generally interested in developing a career within the Chamber, this “Hot Seat” behavior would be extremely puzzling. However, given progressive ambition, it is perfectly understandable.

In the first two chapters I argued that when careers are short, few deputies have incentives to institutionalize a hierarchy of positions within the legislature and a system of norms that regulates access to those positions. In this situation, the relative value of a seat in the Chamber does not increase with time served. Consequently, few incentives exist for deputies to develop a career in the Chamber. However, this internal dynamic tells only half of the story.