The Chilean Congress has achieved a high degree
of institutionalization since the country’s democ... more The Chilean Congress has achieved a high degree of institutionalization since the country’s democratic restoration in 1990. It has a consolidated internal structure and plays a central role in the political system in exercise of its own functions, which indeed have increased over time. Even so, for political and institutional reasons, its capacity for influence is less than that exercised by other assemblies in advanced democracies.
This article focuses on two research questions: Which interest groups (IGs) participate in the Ch... more This article focuses on two research questions: Which interest groups (IGs) participate in the Chilean legislative process? How successful are the different types of IGs in getting what they want from legislative decisions? On the basis of the main findings of academic research on IGs, we identified three hypotheses about their participation and success in the decision making process. In order to test them, we created a database consisting of 571 bills that had passed through the Chilean parliament between 2006 and 2014, which contains information regarding the content and type of bills and the IGs that participated in the discussion of those bills. We found that Chilean business IGs are the most active of any type of IG. Second, as expected, in the Chilean case the participation of business interest groups is more intense in legislative bills dealing with economic issues. In this context, we found that their participation diminished and/or fell into line with that of other group types when the issue areas under scrutiny were not economic. Third, our preference attainment study on 30 law-making processes shows, contrary to our expectation, that the policy success of business IGs is lower than that achieved by other groups.
The Chilean Congress has achieved a high degree
of institutionalization since the country’s democ... more The Chilean Congress has achieved a high degree of institutionalization since the country’s democratic restoration in 1990. It has a consolidated internal structure and plays a central role in the political system in exercise of its own functions, which indeed have increased over time. Even so, for political and institutional reasons, its capacity for influence is less than that exercised by other assemblies in advanced democracies.
This article focuses on two research questions: Which interest groups (IGs) participate in the Ch... more This article focuses on two research questions: Which interest groups (IGs) participate in the Chilean legislative process? How successful are the different types of IGs in getting what they want from legislative decisions? On the basis of the main findings of academic research on IGs, we identified three hypotheses about their participation and success in the decision making process. In order to test them, we created a database consisting of 571 bills that had passed through the Chilean parliament between 2006 and 2014, which contains information regarding the content and type of bills and the IGs that participated in the discussion of those bills. We found that Chilean business IGs are the most active of any type of IG. Second, as expected, in the Chilean case the participation of business interest groups is more intense in legislative bills dealing with economic issues. In this context, we found that their participation diminished and/or fell into line with that of other group types when the issue areas under scrutiny were not economic. Third, our preference attainment study on 30 law-making processes shows, contrary to our expectation, that the policy success of business IGs is lower than that achieved by other groups.
Uploads
Papers by Ricardo Gamboa
of institutionalization since the country’s democratic
restoration in 1990. It has a consolidated
internal structure and plays a central role in the
political system in exercise of its own functions,
which indeed have increased over time. Even so,
for political and institutional reasons, its capacity
for influence is less than that exercised by other
assemblies in advanced democracies.
of institutionalization since the country’s democratic
restoration in 1990. It has a consolidated
internal structure and plays a central role in the
political system in exercise of its own functions,
which indeed have increased over time. Even so,
for political and institutional reasons, its capacity
for influence is less than that exercised by other
assemblies in advanced democracies.