This thesis explores how political parties coordinate competing objectives, such as winning elections and influencing public policy with demands from their legislators whose interests lie principally in re-election and policy distribution. Electoral and legislative institutions affect the prioritizing of these goals and the appropriate strategy by which to achieve them. Utilizing two East Asian democracies, Japan and Taiwan, my dissertation evaluates this argument via the econometric analysis of various aspects of legislative behavior and policy outcomes, such as committee assignments and deliberations, and intergovernmental fiscal transfers. In regard to committee activities, there exists a significant difference between governing and opposition parties in terms of the expected role of their members on legislative committees. In regard to fiscal transfers, governing parties distribute fiscal resources strategically to party strongholds.

Since Woodrow Wilson's (1885) analysis of Congress, researchers assumed that members of Congress look to one another for information, cues, and advice on unfamiliar policy areas. The amount of time and effort that each legislator and their staffers would have to put in to make all of these voting decisions would be insurmountable. Fellow legislators are a resource to turn to for guidance or assistance. Legislators are able to influence their colleagues above and beyond each of their individual preferences. The members of Congress that are most influential will not necessarily be the same for every bill. The significant legislators may be one's co-partisans and the party leadership or they may be a group of legislators with whom they share a common interest. Spatial analysis allows researchers to look more explicitly at the relationships between legislators and their colleagues. I use spatial probit and a spatial duration model to study these issues by examining the factors that influence voting decisions and the timing of position announcements. I look at a variety of different policy areas, including foreign policy, education, and agriculture, over an extensive time period (1933-2014) to test which relationships are most influential on their decisions. I study the interdependence between three different relationships, same party, state delegation, and ideological similarity, and hypothesize that these ties will lead legislators to behave more similarly. The use of the spatial analysis provides an opportunity to test these relationships and see if even after controlling for other influences there is dependence between legislators. In my research, I find that legislators are interdependent regardless of their individual characteristics. When I analyze voting behavior, legislators' behave similarly from one another across all three relationships above and beyond what we would expect given their personal preferences. These positive findings do not hold when I study the timing of position announcements where legislators behave dissimilarly from one another when interdependence exists. The study, overall, suggests that legislative ties are especially important in explaining voting behavior and that it is critical to account for these relationships.

Scholars of party strategy and government accountability rarely directly connect the priorities of parties' principals, groups seeking to influence parties, to their theories of electoral strategy, parliamentary behavior and policy outputs. I develop a theory that links parties' goals to their behaviors in three areas: electoral strategy, parliamentary behavior and government policies. I build on previous theories by focusing on the issues included in parties' electoral campaigns and their principals. In particular, I conceptualize policy platforms as a balance between parties' policy and electoral goals. I distinguish between statements reflecting these goals by considering the effect of the electoral context on the intra-party groups' policy approach. My theory predicts that party leaders add issues to their electoral platforms when conditions lead intra-party groups to be pragmatic. They decrease the number of issues in the platform when electoral conditions lead intra-party groups to be more ideologically rigid. Parties performing well in the previous election or that expect voters to reward them for their participation in government cause intra-party groups to act more pragmatically. However, these groups become more ideologically rigid when the party lost seats in previous elections or expect punishment for their economic record in office. Upon taking office, I theorize that parliamentary leaders use procedures that both highlight and constrain information about their policy priorities to build the party's image of accountability with voters. Government leaders limit information to voters on issues important to their ideologically motivated intra-party groups, but protect their image with intra-party groups by discussing information about their policy agenda at the party's national meetings. Finally, I predict that ideologically cohesive governments dedicate greater more laws to the priorities of their intra-party groups than to voters' goals because intra-party groups have greater information about the government's behavior and can replace party leaders through national congresses more frequently than voters. I test my theory using a mixed-methods approach. In particular, I test my theory quantitatively in three sections. Using data on 24 countries between 1962 and 2008 from the Comparative Manifestos Project and the OECD, I first predict the number of issues in parties' platforms based on the electoral context. I then use the results from this analysis to predict the application of legislative procedures and the amount of legislation on issues for parties' principals in the French Assemblée Nationale from 1978 through 2007 with data from the Comparative Agendas Project. Throughout these large-N analyses I find evidence in favor of the theory; parties' platforms respond to electoral conditions, government leaders use procedures on issues important to both groups and ideologically cohesive governments devote a larger number of laws to intra-party groups. Finally, following the logic of a nested-analysis, I undertake case studies of the French Parti Socialiste's organizational behavior leading up to elections in 1993 and 1997 and its behavior in office following the 1997 election. I use evidence from news reports, party congress and legislative debates, party newsletters, and personal interviews. The analysis indicates that intra-party groups influence parties' electoral and legislative strategies. The results suggest that intra-party politics hold broad consequences for parties' behavior in office.

This dissertation considers how district-level demographic factors favorable to women congressional candidates facilitate substantive representation of women's interests. I contribute to the existing research by linking the literature on women candidate emergence and electoral success with that on descriptive and substantive representation. Beyond simply asking whether and how women in Congress represent women's interests, I argue that the demographic characteristics of districts in which women are more likely to run and win public office also put women representing those districts in Congress in better position to cultivate feminist homestyles and substantively represent women's interests through legislative behavior. I examine whether women representatives in women-friendly districts are more likely than men representing similar districts, or women in less women-friendly districts, to sponsor legislation in women's issue areas, sponsors women's issue earmarks, and defect from party in women's issue roll-call votes. Overall, I find general support for my theory that district-level factors contribute to observed gender differences in legislative behavior in women's issue areas.

Congressional roll-call votes are often used to investigate legislative voting behavior. To depict adaptive roll-call behavior in response to demographic changes that occur during redistricting, I use issue specific interest group scores from the ADA, NFU, and COPE. This exploits the bias in the selection of the issues that interest groups utilize to rate U.S. representatives, by using them to reflect changes in response to significant demographic fluctuations in the constituency population. The findings indicate that while party is the most significant factor in whether legislators adapt their voting in favor of certain groups, they do notice group composition changes within district and adapt their voting accordingly. This illustrates the impact of redistricting on policy and legislators' adaptation to changes in district composition.

Como votam os legisladores latino-americanos em temas de política externa? Essa pergunta é norteada por um longo debate na literatura especializada acerca da especificidade da política externa em relação às demais políticas públicas e sua influência no comportamento legislativo. Por um lado, argumenta-se uma tendência a um comportamento unificado entre os partidos políticos nos temas internacionais, revelando baixa politização da política externa na arena legislativa. O elevado custo eleitoral de se opor à política externa presidencial, o baixo retorno eleitoral dos temas internacionais e a maior capacidade institucional do Poder Executivo conduzir a política externa do país são alguns dos principais argumentos desta perspectiva analítica. Por outro lado, enfatiza-se a importância dos arranjos e coalizões domésticas na formulação da política externa, apontando semelhança entre os comportamentos legislativos nas arenas doméstica e internacional. A diluição entre a fronteira que divide os assuntos domésticos e internacionais, assim como o crescente efeito distributivo advindo da política externa em economias cada vez mais interdependentes são alguns dos fatores explicativos desta perspectiva teórica. Embora haja grande profusão de estudos acerca do comportamento legislativo na política externa cujo objeto é o caso norte-americano, para o caso dos países latino-americanos ainda há um baixo número de trabalhos empíricos, especialmente aqueles que incluem mais de um caso na análise. Assim, a presente tese analisa as votações nominais em temas de política externa em seis países latino-americanos: Argentina, Brasil, Chie, México, Paraguai e Peru. São dois os principais objetivos. Primeiro, comparar o comportamento legislativo em temas de política externa e doméstica a fim determinar semelhanças e diferenças em alguns aspectos centrais: o nível de unidade partidária, a dimensionalidade dos votos e o nível de conflito interpartidário. Segundo, encontrar os fatores determinantes do voto do legislador latino-americano em temas de política externa. Para tanto, calculamos os índices de Rice dos principais partidos políticos dos seis países, comparando-os com os scores da arena doméstica. Fazemos o uso de técnicas de estimação dos pontos ideais dos legisladores latino-americanos em temas de política externa para determinar o nível de conflito interpartidário e a dimensionalidade das votações. Adicionalmente, analisamos o voto do legislador latino-americano em temas de política comercial por meio de regressão logística, incluindo nos modelos explicativos variáveis correspondentes às características socioeconômicas do distrito eleitoral do legislador. Nossos resultados indicam baixa diferenciação entre os níveis de unidade partidária dos partidos 5 políticos nas arenas doméstica e internacional, além de níveis similares de conflito interpartidário, ainda que haja algumas variações importantes entre os casos. Verificou-se baixa dimensionalidade nas votações de política externa em todos os países, interpretada como a disposição dos partidos políticos no contínuo ideológico direita - esquerda e a dicotomia entre governo e oposição. Finalmente, a análise dos modelos logísticos indica, para o caso específico da política comercial, similaridade nos fatores estruturadores do voto do legislador, mais notadamente a dicotomia entre governo e oposição e a ideologia dos partidos políticos. Concluímos a baixa relevância da especificidade da política externa na influência do comportamento legislativo em plenário, comportamento este muito similar às demais políticas públicas. / How do Latin-American legislators vote in foreign policy issues? The question addresses a long debate in the specialized literature regarding foreign policy specificity among other public policies and its influence on legislative behavior. On one hand, unified behavior among political parties on international issues is argued to be the standard behavior, revealing low polarization in legislative foreign policy decisions. The high costs of opposing presidents foreign policy, the low electoral gains obtained from foreign policy activism and the greater capacity of Executive to conduct international issues are among the main arguments of this perspective. On the other hand, the importance of domestic institutions and coalitions are emphasized as important features of the foreign policy decision-making process, pointing out similarity between legislative behaviors in both arenas. The dilution between domestic and foreign boundaries, as well as the distributive effect from increasing internationalized economies derived from foreign policy choices are some of explanatory features from this theoretical perspective. Although there is a great amount of studies focusing on legislative behavior in foreign policy at the US Congress, there is a lack of empirical research regarding Latin-American countries, especially across cases. The present thesis investigates foreign policy roll call votes of six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. The main goals are two. First, to compare the legislative behavior in domestic and foreign policies regarding the level of party unity, dimensionality of voting and the level of inter-party conflict. Second, explaining legislative votes in foreign policy. We calculate the rice index for the major political parties of the six countries mentioned above, comparing the scores in both domestic and international arenas. We also apply technics of estimating legislator\'s ideal points to assess the level of inter-party polarization and the dimensionality of foreign policy votes. We argue that there is no significant difference between legislative behaviors regarding the domestic and foreign arenas. Party unity, the level of inter-party polarization and the dimensionality of policy are all quite similar in both domestic and international issues. Our findings also indicate low dimensionality in foreign policy votes interpreted as the ideological position of political parties and the government opposition dichotomy. Finally, the logistic models also indicate ideology and coalition as the main explanatory variables of legislators votes in trade policy. The specific nature of foreign policy does not impact significantly legislative behavior in Latin America.

This paper uses the case of Mexico to explore the effects of electoral systems on women’s representation in legislatures. While a number of studies have looked at how electoral rules affect women’s presence in parliament (descriptive representation), less work has focused on how these rules affect female legislators’ inclination to promote policy directed toward women as a constituency (substantive representation). Mexico’s mixed member electoral system serves to compare legislators operating within the same cultural, institutional and political context but who were elected under distinct electoral formulas, either through the local popular vote in single member districts (SMDs), or through proportional representation (PR) on the basis of party lists. A quantitative approach is adopted to explore the differences between the two groups when it comes to introducing legislative proposals related to women’s rights and gender equality. Based on data from the Mexican Chamber of Deputies covering a time span of 20 years, the results show that female legislators elected through Mexico’s PR tier are more likely to put forward bills on these issues than their SMD elected counterparts, independently of their party identification and where in the country they belong geographically. This suggests that the design of the electoral system can have an impact on legislative behavior, in this case that of female politicians when it comes to advancing women’s rights policy.

Como votam os legisladores latino-americanos em temas de política externa? Essa pergunta é norteada por um longo debate na literatura especializada acerca da especificidade da política externa em relação às demais políticas públicas e sua influência no comportamento legislativo. Por um lado, argumenta-se uma tendência a um comportamento unificado entre os partidos políticos nos temas internacionais, revelando baixa politização da política externa na arena legislativa. O elevado custo eleitoral de se opor à política externa presidencial, o baixo retorno eleitoral dos temas internacionais e a maior capacidade institucional do Poder Executivo conduzir a política externa do país são alguns dos principais argumentos desta perspectiva analítica. Por outro lado, enfatiza-se a importância dos arranjos e coalizões domésticas na formulação da política externa, apontando semelhança entre os comportamentos legislativos nas arenas doméstica e internacional. A diluição entre a fronteira que divide os assuntos domésticos e internacionais, assim como o crescente efeito distributivo advindo da política externa em economias cada vez mais interdependentes são alguns dos fatores explicativos desta perspectiva teórica. Embora haja grande profusão de estudos acerca do comportamento legislativo na política externa cujo objeto é o caso norte-americano, para o caso dos países latino-americanos ainda há um baixo número de trabalhos empíricos, especialmente aqueles que incluem mais de um caso na análise. Assim, a presente tese analisa as votações nominais em temas de política externa em seis países latino-americanos: Argentina, Brasil, Chie, México, Paraguai e Peru. São dois os principais objetivos. Primeiro, comparar o comportamento legislativo em temas de política externa e doméstica a fim determinar semelhanças e diferenças em alguns aspectos centrais: o nível de unidade partidária, a dimensionalidade dos votos e o nível de conflito interpartidário. Segundo, encontrar os fatores determinantes do voto do legislador latino-americano em temas de política externa. Para tanto, calculamos os índices de Rice dos principais partidos políticos dos seis países, comparando-os com os scores da arena doméstica. Fazemos o uso de técnicas de estimação dos pontos ideais dos legisladores latino-americanos em temas de política externa para determinar o nível de conflito interpartidário e a dimensionalidade das votações. Adicionalmente, analisamos o voto do legislador latino-americano em temas de política comercial por meio de regressão logística, incluindo nos modelos explicativos variáveis correspondentes às características socioeconômicas do distrito eleitoral do legislador. Nossos resultados indicam baixa diferenciação entre os níveis de unidade partidária dos partidos 5 políticos nas arenas doméstica e internacional, além de níveis similares de conflito interpartidário, ainda que haja algumas variações importantes entre os casos. Verificou-se baixa dimensionalidade nas votações de política externa em todos os países, interpretada como a disposição dos partidos políticos no contínuo ideológico direita - esquerda e a dicotomia entre governo e oposição. Finalmente, a análise dos modelos logísticos indica, para o caso específico da política comercial, similaridade nos fatores estruturadores do voto do legislador, mais notadamente a dicotomia entre governo e oposição e a ideologia dos partidos políticos. Concluímos a baixa relevância da especificidade da política externa na influência do comportamento legislativo em plenário, comportamento este muito similar às demais políticas públicas. / How do Latin-American legislators vote in foreign policy issues? The question addresses a long debate in the specialized literature regarding foreign policy specificity among other public policies and its influence on legislative behavior. On one hand, unified behavior among political parties on international issues is argued to be the standard behavior, revealing low polarization in legislative foreign policy decisions. The high costs of opposing presidents foreign policy, the low electoral gains obtained from foreign policy activism and the greater capacity of Executive to conduct international issues are among the main arguments of this perspective. On the other hand, the importance of domestic institutions and coalitions are emphasized as important features of the foreign policy decision-making process, pointing out similarity between legislative behaviors in both arenas. The dilution between domestic and foreign boundaries, as well as the distributive effect from increasing internationalized economies derived from foreign policy choices are some of explanatory features from this theoretical perspective. Although there is a great amount of studies focusing on legislative behavior in foreign policy at the US Congress, there is a lack of empirical research regarding Latin-American countries, especially across cases. The present thesis investigates foreign policy roll call votes of six Latin American countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay and Peru. The main goals are two. First, to compare the legislative behavior in domestic and foreign policies regarding the level of party unity, dimensionality of voting and the level of inter-party conflict. Second, explaining legislative votes in foreign policy. We calculate the rice index for the major political parties of the six countries mentioned above, comparing the scores in both domestic and international arenas. We also apply technics of estimating legislator\'s ideal points to assess the level of inter-party polarization and the dimensionality of foreign policy votes. We argue that there is no significant difference between legislative behaviors regarding the domestic and foreign arenas. Party unity, the level of inter-party polarization and the dimensionality of policy are all quite similar in both domestic and international issues. Our findings also indicate low dimensionality in foreign policy votes interpreted as the ideological position of political parties and the government opposition dichotomy. Finally, the logistic models also indicate ideology and coalition as the main explanatory variables of legislators votes in trade policy. The specific nature of foreign policy does not impact significantly legislative behavior in Latin America.

No description available.

O novo Código Florestal (Lei 12.651 de 2012) tramitou por quase 13 anos no Congresso Nacional e obteve grande repercussão social. A maior parte do processo foi caracterizada como vitória da bancada ruralista e derrota governamental, em um momento no qual o Executivo possuía maioria legislativa. Entretanto, o conflito não se deu com a variável oposição e governo, mas entre coalizões rurais e ambientais. Este trabalho busca apontar quais recursos utilizados pelas coalizões foram determinantes no resultado da política. Para isso foi analisada a fase inicial da tramitação da matéria na Câmara dos Deputados, ou seja, o período desde a instalação da comissão especial até a aprovação no Plenário da Casa. As audiências públicas e o parecer da comissão revelaram quais são os interesses em jogo e como eles se organizaram para o conflito. A literatura norte-americana sobre formação de agenda e comportamento legislativo subsidiou a compreensão da atuação das lideranças entendidas como os parlamentares que coordenaram os trabalhos das coalizões. Após apontar os principais recursos utilizados por elas, demonstra-se o quanto algumas estratégias foram determinantes no resultado da política. Constatou-se que a definição de uma proposta politicamente viável pelos representantes da agricultura foi determinante na capacidade de construção e mobilização dessa coalizão. Além disso, considerando que o processo decisório também se tornou objeto de conflito, os procedimentos de discussão e votação da matéria foram escolhidos pelas lideranças não apenas para defender a proposta, mas também para facilitar a obtenção de recompensa eleitoral. / The new Forest Code took almost 13 years in National Congress and had considerable social impact. Most of the process was characterized as a rural victory and governmental defeat, at a time when the Executive held legislative majority. However, the conflict could not be explained by the variable opposition and government, but by rural and environmental coalitions. This work seeks to appoint what coalition resources were determinant in the policy outcome. The first phase of the legislative process in the House of Representatives were analyzed - from the installation of the special committee until the approval on the House floor. The hearings and the committee report described the interests involved and how they organized themselves. The American literature about agenda setting and legislative behavior supported the evaluation about leader\'s action understood as legislators who coordinated the coalition\'s work. After pointing out the key resources used by them, it is shown how some strategies were decisive in the outcome of the policy. It was found that the definition of a politically viable proposal by representatives of agriculture activities was crucial to the capacity of building this coalition. Moreover, considering that the decision-making process also became object of dispute, the procedures for discussion and vote were chosen by the leadership not only to defend the proposal, but also to facilitate the achievement of electoral recompense.