The chart below, regarding the credibility of politicians, is very clear about the results of this process of choosing political leaders in the current forms of Liberal democracies. These data are about the credibility deserved by those who should be the best that a nation has, as they occupy the most responsible positions. The survey is by IBOPE and was published in Zero Hora, on 08/09/87. Needless to say, the situation in Brazil 2020 does not look any better, with so many corruption scandals in the highest positions in the nation! The question asked was as follows:
– “Do you agree or disagree with the statements below used to describe the actions of politicians?” The tabulation presents percentages.
| Statements | Agree | Disagree | Not know/ not answer |
| Only do politics in self-interest | 80% | 17% | 3% |
| They care about the interests of the people | 30 | 67 | 3 |
| Even the most honest ones corrupt themselves | 66 | 26 | 8 |
| Not deliver what they promise in the campaign | 89 | 9 | 2 |
| Only defend those who helped them get elected | 73 | 23 | 4 |
| They enjoy many perks | 92 | 6 | 2 |
| Only remember the voter at the time of the election | 93 | 6 | 1 |
This disheartening picture, in itself, is already a clear statement about the incompetence of this system of choosing political leaders.
It is worth adding another table, even more recent, the result of a survey by IBOPE, which interviewed 2,000 people, in May 93. This table was published in the magazine Veja on 2/6/1993, with the answers to the question:
– “Do you remember the name of the candidate and the party you voted for as a federal deputy in the last elections (late 1989)?
| Replies | Percentages |
| Remember candidate and party | 12% |
| Voted only in the caption | 14% |
| Remember only the candidate | 8% |
| Voted blank / null | 17% |
| Does not remember for federal deputy |
49% |
| Total | 100% |
In other words, half the population did not remember, quite simply, which candidate or party voted in what is the most important election in the nation. All major laws in the country depend on the Chamber of Deputies, or all major legislative decisions, or even, as has already happened in recent history, the impeachment of presidents, the maximum head of the executive power, in addition to so many other charges of greater responsibility and importance for the country. Well, with all this at stake, only 12% of the population remembered both the candidate and the party he voted for as a federal deputy in the last elections!
These tables bear evident testimony to the incompetence of this system for electing political rulers. Perhaps the picture of social exclusion, of poverty and violence that we consider characteristic of the social organization of a country such as Brazil bears even clearer testimony to the failure of this type of political organization. (Arnaldo Sisson Filho. What Is Wrong With Politics?; chapters III and V)