This research note explores whether the government-opposition dimension that emerges from voting records of Brazilian legislatures also arises in legislative speechmaking. Since the earlier stages of the legislative process are innocuous to policy outcomes, party leaders would have fewer incentives to coerce their copartisans’ behavior in speeches than in roll calls. To test this expectation, this study estimates Brazilian political parties’ policy positions, relying on a sentiment analysis approach to classify 64,000 senators’ speeches. The results suggest that the president and the party leadership exert significant influence not only over how legislators vote but also over how they speak. We speculate that these unforeseen findings are backed by the decisiveness of speeches in passing legislation, the importance leadership gives to party brand, and legislators’ need to signal their positions to leaders and the government.

中文翻译：

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立法演讲中的政府和反对派：使用文本作为数据来估计巴西政党的政策立场

本研究报告探讨了巴西立法机构投票记录中出现的政府反对维度是否也出现在立法演讲中。由于立法过程的早期阶段对政策结果无害，与唱名相比，政党领导人在演讲中胁迫其同党成员行为的动机更少。为了检验这一预期，本研究估计巴西政党的政策立场，依靠情绪分析方法对 64,000 名参议员的演讲进行分类。结果表明，总统和党的领导层不仅对立法者的投票方式产生重大影响，而且对他们的发言方式也产生重大影响。我们推测，这些意想不到的发现得到了通过立法时演讲的果断、领导层对党的品牌的重视、