Patterns of legislative politics : roll call voting in Latin America and the United States / Scott Morgenstern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morgenstern, Scott, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Congress--Voting.

United States.

Legislative bodies--Southern Cone of South America--Voting.

Legislative bodies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 224 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Using the United States as a basis of comparison, this book makes extensive use of roll call data to explore patterns of legislative politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. It distinguishes among parties, factions, coalitions and delegations based on the extent to which they are unified in their voting and/or willing to form policy coalitions with other legislative 'agents'. It discusses the voting unity and ballot systems that allow voters to identify an agent, and describes the degree to which those agents have been flexible with regards to the formation of policy coalitions. It also shows that the US parties have exhibited higher levels of unity but less flexibility in recent years, and thus contrast the prevailing pattern in Latin America. The book focuses its explanation for the patterns on the role of candidate nominations, other aspects of the electoral system and the legislators' ideological alignments.

Contents:

Patterns of legislative politics : identifiability and flexibility

Representation and the agent system

Identifying agents

Influences on agent unity : discipline and cohesion

Explaining voting unity

Policy coalitions and agent flexibility

Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-214) and indexes.

ISBN:

1-107-14543-0

1-280-43752-9

0-511-18411-5

0-511-16564-1

0-511-16371-1

0-511-31265-2

0-511-51032-2

0-511-16451-3

OCLC:

437163513