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Constituency Preferences and Committee Selection in the Mexican Cámara de Diputados

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2019

Christopher D. Raymond Open the ORCID record for Christopher D. Raymond [Opens in a new window]  and
Sergio Bárcena Juárez Open the ORCID record for Sergio Bárcena Juárez [Opens in a new window]
Christopher D. Raymond*
Affiliation:
Christopher D. Raymond is a lecturer in politics at Queen’s University Belfast.
Sergio Bárcena Juárez*
Affiliation:
Sergio Bárcena Juárez is a profesor investigador in the Escuela de Humanidades y Educación, Tecnológico de Monterrey.
*
C.Raymond@qub.ac.uk.
sergio.barcena@tec.mx.
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Abstract

Previous research examining selection to legislative committees has assumed that the impact of constituency preferences on committee assignments is due to the incentives for individual legislators to use their committee seats to increase their personal chances of re-election. Examining the case of the Mexican Chamber of Deputies (where legislators were, until recently, barred from re-election), this study argues that the impact of constituency preferences on selection to committees also occurs because parties have incentives for their members to use committee assignments to increase the party’s chances of being re-elected. Analysis of assignments to 11 committees over 4 legislative terms provides support for the argument. These findings reinforce previous research arguing that concerns with constituency representation and its impact on re-election also apply to political parties and not solely to individual legislators.

Keywords

Constituency preferencescommittee assignmentslegislative organizationdistributive theorycartel theory
Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , November 2019 , pp. 95 - 117
Copyright
© University of Miami 2019 

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