THE FORMATION OF NEW POLITICAL ELITES IN THE POST-REDEMOCRATIZATION CEARÁ: THE CASE OF BARREIRA AND ACARAPE

Abstract

This work aimed to understand the process of formation of new political elites of emancipated Ceará municipalities from the 1980s as well as the dynamics of power disputes at the local level. To this end, an analysis of the municipalities of Barreira and Acarape was developed from the reconstruction of the trajectories of the emancipationist leaders, their entry and performance in the municipal political field. The analysis of electoral disputes from emancipation to the 2016 local elections allowed us to verify the political strength of these new elites and the specificities of power disputes in Barreira and Acarape. Contextualizing the dynamics of local power in these young municipalities has served as a means to rethink local power and update such expensive categories to the study of power and politics in Brazil, especially in Ceará.