@mastersthesis {85071,
	title = {How Social Policy and Scandal Transformed Brazil{\textquoteright}s Partido dos Trabalhadores},
	year = {2012},
	type = {B.A. Thesis},
	abstract = {This paper analyzes evidence that the PT{\textquoteright}s electoral base has changed over time, posits that the 
Bolsa Fam{\'\i}lia social welfare program and a 2005 corruption scandal worked together to 
produce the shift, if it happened, and uses municipal-level data to test a model of voter support 
for PT candidates in congressional races. It also considers whether the Bolsa program is subject 
to clientelistic interference. Results suggest that the Bolsa program does increase voter support 
for the PT at the municipal level, and that this effect has grown larger as the average benefit 
payment has increased. The provision of conditional benefits to Brazil{\textquoteright}s poorest citizens has 
firmly entrenched a pro-poor discourse likely to remain the norm for the foreseeable future. },
	url = {http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/91783},
	author = {Soderborg, Seth N}
}
