This article offers an empirical test of why some legislators’ bills are more likely to move forward in the legislative process. We argue that who signs the bill matters when it comes to the level of ...support that the proposal receives. Successful bills will be sponsored by a greater number of members (bandwagon factor) and political adversaries (support across the aisle factor). On the contrary, failed initiatives will be those sponsored by inexperienced parliamentarians (newcomers factor). We examine the case of Chile and test the expectations with legislative data on parliamentarians’ bills.
Previous research suggests that bill initiation is a mechanism used by legislators to foster personal votes. This article puts forward a theory whereby legislative activity is understood as a form of ...party service. Bill initiation records are used by parties to inform their decisions on who is ready to be promoted. The theory is evaluated using an original data-set from the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. Our empirical findings make a strong case for the hypothesis according to which parties reward those deputies who have shown to be effective legislators.
When do interest groups target legislators to approach or lobby under strong presidentialism? This article explores two hypotheses. First, interest groups and lobbyists seek to access committee ...chairs with gatekeeping power, even in those jurisdictions where the executive holds (most) exclusivity to initiate legislation (Gatekeeping Hypothesis). Second, interest groups and lobbyists target legislators who introduce more bills on issues that concern them but only on policy areas outside the executive's exclusive sphere (Legislative Activity Hypothesis). We test these hypotheses with evidence from the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. We have coded and analysed 6479 lobbying audiences and over 2300 bills.
Abstract
Previous research suggests that legislators respond to their constituencies when they are vulnerable electoral candidates. This article argues that the legislators that focus on their ...constituencies (perhaps at the expense of the broader national constituency) will be born and raised in the region where their district is located (biographical factors), junior members of the assembly (intraparty position), and from thinly populated districts (district density). I analyse new data from the Chilean Chamber of Deputies that supports these theoretical expectations. These findings have implications for our understanding of political representation and when legislators represent their districts.
This article addresses the question of whether politicians are willing to overcome patronage by creating a merit-based recruitment and selection system of the senior civil servants with the purpose ...of making public administration more effective. To answer the question the paper analyses the Chilean administrative reform of 2003. It concludes that the reform created a hybrid system of appointment of top civil servants: one with elements of meritocracy but restricted to the members of the political coalition in power. Information came from 67 interviews to key actors, official documents, academic literature and the press.
This note examines and tests the determinants of constituency service in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies. We argue that socio-demographic factors lead towards differences in the provision of ...constituency service. We use a new data set of meetings between legislators, constituents, and groups to provide evidence for two main hypotheses. First, Chilean deputies from more remote districts devote a higher proportion of their meetings to addressing local or personal issues from constituents (Centre-Periphery Hypothesis). Second, deputies from districts in worse socio-economic situations also provide relatively more constituency services of this type (Social Deprivation Hypothesis).
This research note presents an empirical test aimed at untangling the factors that explain the substantive representation of women's interests in the legislative arena. We hand-coded over 7000 ...parliamentarians' bills introduced in the Chilean Chamber of Deputies between 1990 and 2020. Our results show, first, that female legislators are more active than men in sponsoring bills that favour women's interests, especially regarding feminist claims. Secondly, we find that female parliamentarians from leftist parties are more likely to embrace feminist claims in their bills than female legislators from right-wing parties. By contrast, women from the right initiate more often bills associated with women's traditional role.
Este estudio examina el rol de la Comisión de Defensa de la Cámara de Dipu-tados en el proceso de toma de decisión en materias de Seguridad y Defensa (Policy Making Process –PMP– en inglés). En este ...contexto, las premisas de este estudio guardan relación con las atribuciones de estas comisiones, que van más allá de la mera aprobación presupuestaria y proyectos para convertirlas en ley, sino que, además, otras actividades centrales para los intereses de sus miembros en materias tales como la supervisión de las decisiones del gobierno en materia de Defensa, como asimismo su relación directa con las Fuerzas Armadas, consi-derando que cada diputado y senador pueden incluir en el desarrollo de políticas públicas de cada rama castrense.
La importancia y centralidad de los Grupos de Interés (GI), definidos como cualquier organización de personas que realiza acciones con el objeto de influir en las decisiones públicas, es ...permanentemente relevada y discutida a nivel de la opinión pública. Si bien en el debate político cotidiano se discute si su acción es o no una “potencial amenaza” para el buen funcionamiento de la democracia, la Ciencia Política ha asumido que los GI existen y son un actor relevante en toda democracia. Consecuentemente, la investigación se ha concentrado en estudiar el problema desde una perspectiva empírica. En este “Foro de Debate”, nuestro objetivo es abordar el problema concentrándonos en el caso de Chile. Primero, y a diferencia de lo que ocurre para el caso de las democracias europeas y de Estados Unidos, porque en Chile y en América Latina sabemos muy poco acerca de las características del sistema de representación de intereses, especialmente respecto de cuán equilibrada es la participación según tipo de interés. Segundo, y nuevamente a diferencia de lo que ocurre en el caso de las democracias avanzadas, porque igualmente sabemos muy poco acerca de cómo los GI definen sus estrategias de acción dentro del sistema político. Y finalmente, porque conocer el caso de Chile será de utilidad para avanzar en el estudio de esta importante dimensión de otras democracias de América Latina. Este trabajo, es producto de una investigación financiada por el programa chileno ANID/FONDECYT (Proyecto 1200416).
