Multilevel constitutional reform and its dilemmas: Brazil’s 3rd Pension Reform case (2019)

Abstract

The article explores the different political and legal dilemmas faced by transposition from federal to regional or local legislation, in federal states. In this context, it is argued that federal and supranational legislation are examples of the same phenomenon (multilevel legislation) but have sensitive and remarkable differences in terms of dynamics and political distribution costs. The case analyzed is the Brazilian 3rd Pension Reform, which is considered a representative of the problem as it is a constitutional reform that needs to be transposed to regional and local legislation but often fails to do so.