Legislative Politics in Latin America

by Edited by Scott Morgenstern , Benito Nacif

• ISBN13: 9780521792196
• ISBN10: 0521792193
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-03-04
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This study explores legislative politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Instead of beginning with an assumption that these legislatures are either rubber-stamps or obstructionist bodies, the chapters provide new data and a fresh analytical approach to describe and explain the role of these representative bodies in these consolidating democracies. For each country the book provides three chapters dedicated, in turn, to executive-legislative relations, the legislatures' organizational structure, and the policy process. The analytical focus of each section, however remains the same: the role of institutional factors (including the allocation of policy-making authority between the executive and legislative branches of government, the number of relevant parties in the legislature, and the structure of electoral incentives) in shaping the patterns of legislative behavior.

Table of Contents

Tables and Figures	xi
Contributors	xv
Preface and Acknowledgments	xvii
Party Names and Other Acronyms and Abbreviations	xix
Towards a Model of Latin American Legislatures	1	(22)
Scott Morgenstern
Part I: Executive-Legislative Relations
Oscillating Relations: President and Congress in Argentina	23	(25)
Ana Maria Mustapic
Presidential Cabinets, Electoral Cycles, and Coalition Discipline in Brazil	48	(31)
Octavio Amorim Neto
Exaggerated Presidentialism and Moderate Presidents: Executive-Legislative Relations in Chile	79	(35)
Peter M. Siavelis
Executive-Legislative Relations: The Case of Mexico (1946-1997)	114	(33)
Ma. Amparo Casar
Part II: Political Parties and Legislative Structure
Explaining the High Level of Party Discipline in the Argentine Congress	147	(38)
Mark P. Jones
Party Discipline in the Chamber of Deputies	185	(37)
Barry Ames
Parties, Coalitions, and the Chilean Congress in the 1990s	222	(32)
John M. Carey
Understanding Party Discipline in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies: The Centralized Party Model	254	(33)
Benito Nacif
Part III: Legislatures and the Policy Process
Fiscal Policy Making in the Argentine Legislature	287	(28)
Kent H. Eaton
Progressive Ambition, Federalism, and Pork-Barreling in Brazil	315	(26)
David Samuels
Appointment, Reelection, and Autonomy in the Senate of Chile	341	(36)
John Londregan
The Legal and Partisan Framework of the Legislative Delegation of the Budget In Mexico	377	(36)
Jeffery A. Weldon
Part IV: Conclusions
Explaining Legislative Politics in Latin America	413	(33)
Scott Morgenstern
Epilogue: Latin America's Reactive Assemblies and Proactive Presidents	446	(23)
Gary W. Cox
Scott Morgenstern
References	469	(24)
Author Index	493	(4)
General Index	497