Political Careers and Party Disciplines in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies

Abstract

This article has two objectives. First, it aims to highlight the comparatively high levels of party discipline in the Argentina’s House of Deputies through an analysis of roll call votes in the period after 1983. Second, it seeks to identify the most important determinants of this behavior. From this research, it is concluded that party discipline in the House of Deputies is relatively high and that this level of discipline derives mainly from a combination of institutional rules that govern both elections and internal legislative organization. These rules, together with the progressive political ambition of the majority of the legislators and the personal/historic factor, help to understand the reasons why legislators do not usually vote, with rare exceptions, against their own party.