Brazil fact of the day

In absolute terms, Brazilian elections are second only to America’s in their costs, and relative to national income can exceed them by a wide margin.  In 1996, Clinton spent $43 million to take the White House; in 1994 Cardoso laid out $41 million to secure the Palacio de Planalto, in a country with a per capita GDP less than a sixth that of the US.

That is from Perry Anderson, “Lula’s Brazil,” The London Review of Books, 31 March 2011.