Understanding Politics

A site to understand political and public policy change in Brazil since 1980 with open data, established metrics and peer-reviewed research. Every number links to its source.

Every argument follows the same structure

1. Claim
2. Metric
3. Data
4. Scientific source (DOI)
5. Limitations

• Brazil 1980–today

  Social and economic indicators with each government's period and comparison with neighboring countries.

• Indicators

  35 indicators with definition, formula, source, criticisms of the metric and downloadable data.

• Analyses

  Income inequality in Brazil since 1980

• Reference policies

  Progresa/Oportunidades (Mexico)

Principles

• Correlation is not causation: timelines by government are descriptive.
• Visible uncertainty: confidence intervals and series breaks on charts.
• Neutrality: every analysis presents evidence for and against.
• Reproducibility: every chart can be regenerated from the open code.