🤝 Lobbying limbo

REGULATION

Why has Brazil never regulated lobbying as a profession?

It may come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the inner workings of Brazil’s capital, but lobbying remains an unregulated profession in the country. Despite being widely practiced throughout all levels of government, lobbyists operate in a legal gray zone.

Proposals to bring transparency and oversight to lobbying have languished in Congress for decades. One pending bill, first introduced in 2007, reached its 18th anniversary in May — making it old enough to vote if it were a person — while still awaiting legislative approval. Though passed by the House in 2022, it is now crawling through Senate committees, with no clear indication of when it might reach the end of its journey.

The image of lobbyists in Brazil remains deeply tainted by high-profile corruption scandals, with the general public seeing their work as tantamount to influence peddling. The bad rap is such that lobbyists often euphemistically refer to their own work as “government relations” or “institutional relations.” 

As a result, progress on regulation often coincides with political crises rather than long-term governance reform…

🔒 This was a free preview; the rest is behind our paywall

Don’t miss out! Upgrade to unlock full access. The process takes only seconds with Apple Pay or Stripe. Become a member.

Why you should subscribe

We’re here for readers who want to truly understand Brazil and Latin America — a region too often ignored or misrepresented by the international media.

Since 2017, our reporting has been powered by paid subscribers. They’re the reason we can keep a full-time team of 10 journalists across Brazil and Argentina, delivering sharp, independent coverage every day.

If you value our work, subscribing is the best way to keep it going — and growing.

Our annual plan goes for just USD 0.52 a day — but the value you'll get back from it is truly immeasurable. So… what’s stopping you from joining right now?