Abstract

Beginning with the broad literature on the causes of political participation, this chapter analyzes the determinants of the political involvement of Brazilians in different modalities of action. We begin with a discussion of the concept of participation and the classification proposals utilized in recent literature. In the second section, we examine Brazilian electoral participation, especially the expansion of the suffrage and indicators of voter turnout, abstention, and blank and null votes. In the third section, we analyze the participation of Brazilians in various non-electoral modalities. We conclude with perspectives for future research on participation.