Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Instittutional Variation, Balance of Power and Agenda Control: Evidence from the Argentine Subnational Legislatures

政治学博士论文研究：制度变迁、权力平衡和议程控制：来自阿根廷地方立法机构的证据

• 批准号: 1024205
• 负责人: Ernesto Calvo
• 金额: $ 1.19万
• 依托单位: University of Houston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1024205&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

This research investigates how patterns of legislative competition (i.e., partisan fragmentation and the majority/minority status of the government) are likely to affect the rules and practices that govern the legislative process. These different patterns of legislative competition, the investigator argues, should have an impact on the agenda-setting prerogatives of majority, plurality, and minority parties, which should determine which bill initiatives are given consideration by the plenary floor and win final approval in a state legislature. Thus, the research will show how the gatekeeping prerogatives of majority, plurality, and minority parties affect the relative success of individual legislators and the type of legislation being approved. The data to test these hypotheses will be collected from a promising yet unexplored source: the local legislatures of Argentina's 24 provinces over a twenty-five year period, 1984-2009. The research will not only contribute to the literature on comparative legislatures but also to the knowledge of subnational legislative success in federal countries. Hence, the data generated in this project will enable other scholars to test additional hypotheses, to investigate the legislative performance of political parties and the legislative prerogatives of subnational governments in a federal country. The units of analysis of this project include 8 bicameral and 16 unicameral legislatures in the Argentine provinces (32 legislative bodies in total). In order to investigate the relationship between the internal rules of the state legislatures and their political composition, the researcher will analyze the rate of introduction and the rate of success of bill initiatives across legislatures and over time. Because a significant number of electoral reforms have been implemented in the Argentine provinces, institutional variation within and across provinces will allow for a test of whether changes in legislative rules of procedure (or internal rules) affect legislative performance. The researcher expects the project to show that changes in the partisan environment within local legislatures shape the selection and use of gatekeeping prerogatives by majority parties, e.g., distribution of authority posts and committee assignments. To explore the ability of the majority, plurality, and minority parties to set the legislative agenda, the researcher will distinguish rates of introduction and success by type of party, legislative bloc, and year (1983 to 2009). Variation in the partisan make-up of the legislation reaching the floor is expected to provide critical information on the use of gatekeeping institutions by majority, plurality, and majority parties.The scheduled fieldwork will allow for the collection of data on the provincial legislatures' rules of procedure (internal rules), institutional reforms, legislative composition, committee assignments, distribution of authority posts, the full sample of bills submitted (by party, bloc, year), bills reported to the floor (by party, bloc, year) and bills approved (by party, bloc, year) for all 24 provinces for the period 1983 to 2009. The researcher will also conduct interviews with former provincial legislators and local party leaders, rank-and-file members, and political observers in order to investigate which other informal rules play a key role in the legislative process. The findings generated in this project will contribute to the political science discipline by furthering understanding of subnational legislative politics in federal polities. Moreover, this project will disentangle institutional and contextual determinants of legislative success, which are critical to understand the organization of local legislatures. The data collected for this project are expected to make a contribution to comparative legislative studies. Such research should also prove valuable in efforts to assess the performance of legislative bodies and improve the levels of transparency and accountability in emerging democracies.

本研究调查了立法竞争的模式（即，党派分裂和政府的多数/少数地位）可能会影响立法程序的规则和做法。调查员认为，这些不同的立法竞争模式应该对多数党、多数党和少数党的议会设置特权产生影响，这些特权应该决定哪些法案倡议由全体会议审议，并在州立法机构获得最终批准。因此，本研究将展示多数党、多数党和少数党的守门特权如何影响个别立法者的相对成功和被批准的立法类型。测试这些假设的数据将收集从一个有前途的，但未开发的来源：阿根廷的24个省的地方立法机关在25年的时间，1984年至2009年。这项研究不仅有助于比较立法机构的文献，而且有助于了解联邦国家地方立法的成功。因此，在这个项目中产生的数据将使其他学者能够测试额外的假设，调查政党的立法表现和国家以下各级政府在联邦国家的立法特权。该项目的分析单位包括阿根廷各省的8个两院制和16个一院制立法机构（共32个立法机构）。为了研究州议会的内部规则与其政治构成之间的关系，研究者将分析跨议会和随着时间的推移，法案倡议的引入率和成功率。由于阿根廷各省进行了大量的选举改革，各省内部和各省之间的体制差异将允许测试立法程序规则（或内部规则）的变化是否影响立法业绩。研究人员希望该项目能够表明，地方立法机构内部党派环境的变化会影响多数党对守门特权的选择和使用，例如，权力员额和委员会任务的分配。为了探讨多数党、多数党和少数党制定立法议程的能力，研究人员将按政党类型、立法集团和年份（1983年至2009年）区分立法议程的引入率和成功率。提交议会的立法的党派构成的变化预计将提供关于多数党、多数党和多数党使用守门机构的重要信息，预定的实地工作将有助于收集关于省立法机构议事规则的数据（内部规则）、机构改革、立法机构组成、委员会分配、权力职位分配、1983年至2009年期间所有24个省提交的法案（按政党、集团、年份）、向议会报告的法案（按政党、集团、年份）和批准的法案（按政党、集团、年份）的完整样本。研究人员还将与前省级立法者和地方党领导人、普通成员和政治观察家进行访谈，以调查哪些其他非正式规则在立法过程中发挥了关键作用。在这个项目中产生的研究结果将有助于政治学学科的进一步理解，在联邦政体次国家立法政治。此外，本项目将理清立法成功的体制和背景决定因素，这对理解地方立法机构的组织至关重要。为这一项目收集的数据可望对比较立法研究作出贡献。这类研究还应证明对评估立法机构的业绩和提高新兴民主国家的透明度和问责制水平的努力很有价值。