Revista de Ciencia Política

Ideology and the judicial behavior of career judges: Estimation of ideal points in the Supreme Court of Chile (2009-2019)

Andrés Pavón Mediano, Diego Carrasco Ogaz, Diego Pardow Lorenzo — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Studies on judicial decision-making on constitutional courts have shown that the judges’ ideology is a good predictor of their judicial behavior. However, it remains unclear to what extent this finding is generalizable to courts of cassation without constitutional control powers and integrated by career judges, who arrive at the court after decades working within the judiciary and who have been characterized as source of legal formalism and political neutrality within the court. To study this puzzle, the article analyzes 10 years of votes on split decisions by the Chilean Supreme Court’s Public Law Chamber (N=14.135), where both career and non-career judges participate. The study applies an IRT model to identify the ideal points of each judge, as a latent variable that represent the propensity of judges to vote with the rest of judges, in non-unanimous cases. Against the myth of the ideological neutrality of career judges, the results show that career judges are divided in distinguishable poles in the ideological cleavage of the Court.

The Role of Political Brokers in Slums Redevelopment. An Analysis From the Cases of Rodrigo Bueno and Playón de Chacarita (2016-2020)

Gonzalo Elizondo, Rodrigo Zarazaga — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This paper analyzes the role of political neighborhood brokers in executing public policies in slums. It studies their relationships with the State and their capabilities to boost or hinder the implementation of public policies. In particular, the paper focuses on the redevelopment processes at two slums in the City of Buenos Aires: Rodrigo Bueno and Playón de Chacarita. The evidence gathered shows that if the State and the brokers establish cooperation relationships, the redevelopment process smoothly moves forward. On the contrary, the entire process is put at risk if they come into conflict. Furthermore, the absence of brokers compels the State to lead the redevelopment without links to the neighborhood, obstructing the project's development. The same situation occurs if brokers lose their legitimacy.

Clientelism and electoral competition: The case of Chile’s municipalities

Felipe Livert, Gabriel Ávila, Constanza Carrasco Tapia — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Patronage is often considered a subtype of clientelism that arises through reciprocal arrangements between a politician and a citizen, where electoral support is rewarded with public employment. In Chile, there is evidence of clientelist practices at the municipal level. However, these studies have mainly had a qualitative focus. To complement these studies, this research aims to provide quantitative evidence using panel data and two-way fixed effects. Thus, we analyze the personnel hiring through the Mercado Público platform between 2009 and 2017 across the country’s 345 municipalities, finding evidence that supports two hypotheses: (i) there is a political budget cycle, increasing spending by 14.9% during the election year and (ii) independent politicians spend less on hiring people than mayors who are militants of political parties, being this expenditure -9.8% less for independents than for the latter. These results seek to complement other research on clientelism and patronage in the context of the rise of independent politicians and citizen questioning of traditional political parties, as well as the relevance of public spending in local governments.

The Effect of Social Programs on Voting Decisions: Evidence from a List Experiment in Mexico

Leonardo Gatica-Arreola — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This paper analyses the effect of an unconditional cash transfer program, provided by a local government in Mexico, on the voting behavior of its direct beneficiaries. Using a list experiment that employs data from an original survey conducted in Guadalajara, Mexico, we explore if being a beneficiary of the program is a significant issue to cast a vote. The analysis shows that voters are indeed influenced in their voting decisions by being beneficiaries of a social program. The main result of this study indicates that 16 percent of the beneficiaries considered the receipt of the social program in their voting decision.

Voting Free Trade Agreement under Divided Government: the case of US - Colombia1

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This article analyzes the impact of partisanship under divided government on the approval process of the US-Colombia–Trade Agreement (FTA). Focusing on the case of the FTA between the United States and Colombia, this study examines how partisan and ideological dimensions in the executive and legislative branches shape trade policy decision making. Drawing on existing literature, this study explores the determinants of FTA approval under divided governments using individual and district-level characteristics. In this case, the findings indicate that party affiliation significantly influences members of Congress’ voting behavior on FTAs, with Democrats generally being more skeptical and Republicans more supportive. The article also explores how changes in government positions and the presence of a divided government affected President Barack Obama’s stance on the FTA, highlighting the importance of republican support in Congress. Overall, this research contributes to the understanding of the relationship between divided government and FTA approval, shedding light on the role of partisanship and ideology in shaping US trade policy.

Aristotle and Alexis de Tocqueville’s new political science

Daniel Mansuy — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This article attempts to understand the intellectual influence of Aristotle on Tocqueville in the elaboration of his “new political science”. Our thesis is that, in order to try to counteract the threats inherent in democracy, Tocqueville integrates some Aristotelian categories, and that this is one of the nuclei of his new political science, and is also the origin of many of its ambiguities. The paper is divided into five parts. In the first we will briefly examine Tocqueville’s dissatisfaction with a certain liberalism that precedes him. In the second, we will dwell on the notion of citizenship elaborated by the French aristocrat, with which he attempts to resolve his concerns. The third part argues that the Tocquevillian notion of citizenship has a close kinship with some aspects of Aristotelian practical philosophy. The fourth section offers some reflections on Tocqueville’s political philosophy, and the fifth closes with some brief conclusions.