Premium
Subnational Determinants of National Multipartism in Latin America
Author(s) -
MORENO ERIKA
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.3162/036298003x200854
Subject(s) - legislature , latin americans , political science , state (computer science) , democracy , public administration , lower house , federal state , federalism , democratic system , political economy , politics , economics , law , algorithm , computer science
Recent research points to the importance of subnational elections as variables shaping the national party system in federal states (Jones 1997b; Mainwaring and Shugart 1997; Samuels 2000). I propose that the effects of subnational elections are not limited to federal states but instead can be seen throughout the region. This paper examines the impacts of gubernatorial elections across eighteen Latin American countries during the most recent democratic period. The analysis suggests that intermediate subnational elections do exert an influence on national party systems, whether the state is federal or not, and particularly influence how many parties are elected to a legislature's lower house.