Legislative parties in the Mexican chamber of deputies

Abstract

The central argument of this paper is that legislative parties act as agents of the national party organizations that control both the nomination to office in the Chamber and the future careers of lame-duck legislators, who are Constitutionally prevented from running for reelection in consecutive terms. To develop this argument the paper is organized as follows. The first part deals with the effect of electoral institutions on the career strategies of politicians seeking and holding office in the Chamber. The second shows how legislative parties are instrumental to the advancement of the career goals of individual legislators. The third section treats the substantive and procedural powers that legislative parties seek to capture in the Chamber. The fourth section analyses the role of legislative party leaders in the government of the Chamber. The fifth section deals with the delegation of power to party committee contingents. Finally, the last section shows how legislative parties exercise control of the legislative agenda.