Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-rj9fg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-23T01:05:55.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Game Theoretic Model of Reform in Latin American Democracies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Barbara Geddes
Barbara Geddes
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In this article I develop a simple game-theoretic model of administrative reform in Latin American democracies. The model, which is based on the incentives facing the politicians who must initiate reforms if any are to occur, yields two predictions: (1) reforms are more likely to pass the legislative hurdle when patronage is evenly distributed among the strongest parties, and (2) initial reforms are more likely to be followed by further extensions of reform where the electoral weight of the top parties remains relatively even and stable. Attention to the incentives facing legislators and party leaders also results in the expectation that certain political institutions, such as open list proportional representation and electoral rules that minimize party control over candidate lists, reduce the probability of reform. I test these predictions and expectations on a set of Latin American democracies and find them consistent with historical events.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 371 - 392
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Amaral, Carlos Veríssimo do. 1966. Política e administração de pessoal: Estudos de dois casos [Politics and personal administration: Two case studies]. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getúlio Vargas.Google Scholar
Ames, Barry. 1987. Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, Ronald. 1990. “Clientelism and Political Parties in Colombia: A Party System in Transition?” Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Ascher, William. 1975. “Planners, Politics, and Technocracy in Argentina and Chile.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University.Google Scholar
Benevides, Maria Victoria Mesquita. 1981. A UDN e o Udenismo [The UDN and UDNism]. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra.Google Scholar
Berry, R. Albert, Hellman, Ronald G., and Solaún, Mauricio, eds. 1980. Politics of Compromise: Coalition Government in Colombia. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Biles, Robert. 1972. “Patronage Politics: Electoral Behavior in Uruguay.” Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
Biles, Robert. 1978. “Political Participation in Urban Uruguay: Mixing Public and Private Ends.” In Political Participation in Latin America, vol. 1, Citizen and State, ed. Booth, John and Seligson, Mitchell. New York: Holmes & Meier.Google Scholar
Brewer-Carías, Allan-Randolph. 1975a. Cambio político y reforma del estado en Venezuela [Political change and state reform in Venezuela]. Madrid: Tecnos.Google Scholar
Brewer-Carías, Allan-Randolph. 1975b. “La reforma administrativa en Venezuela (1969–1973): Estrategias, tácticas y criterios” [Administrative reform in Venezuela: Strategies, tactics, and criteria]. In Reforma administrativa: experiencias latinoamericanas [Administrative reform; Latin American experiences]. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública.Google Scholar
Brewer-Carías, Allan-Randolph. 1985. El estado incomprendido: Reflexiones sobre el sistema político y su reforma [The misunderstood state: Reflections on the political system and its reform]. Caracas: Vadell Hermanos.Google Scholar
Cova, Antonio, and Hannot, Thamara. 1986. “La administracion pública: Otra forma de ver a una villana incomprendida” [Public administration: Another view of a misunderstood villain]. In El caso Venezuela: Una ilusión de armonía [The Venezuelan case: An illusion of harmony], ed. Naírn, Moisés and Piñango, Ramón. Caracas: Ediciones IESA.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary. 1986. “The Development of a Partyoriented Electorate in England, 1832–1918.” British Journal of Political Science 16:187–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Soto, Hernando. 1986. El otro sendero: La revolución informal [The other path: The informal revolution]. Lima: Editorial El Barranco.Google Scholar
Dix, Robert H. 1980. “Consociational Democracy: The Case of Colombia.” Comparative Politics 12:303–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duff, Ernest. 1971. “The Role of Congress in the Colombian Political System.” In Latin American Legislatures, ed. Agor, Weston. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Emmerich, Herbert. 1960. “Administrative Roadblocks to Coordinated Development.” Prepared for the Expert Working Group on Social Aspects of Economic Development in Latin America, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Emmerich, Herbert. 1972. “Informe sobre un estudio preliminar acerca de posibilidades de mejoras en la Administración Pública de Venezuela” [Report on a preliminary study of possible improvements in Venezuelan public administration]. In Informe sobre la reforma de la administración pública nacional [Report on the reform of national public administration], vol. 2, Caracas: Comisíon de Reforma de la Administración Pública.Google Scholar
Fabregat, Julio T. 1963. Elecciones Uruguayas [Uruguayan elections]. Montevideo: Corte Electoral.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1990. “Building ‘State’ Autonomy in Brazil, 1930–1964.” Comparative Politics 22:217–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. N.d. Politician's Dilemma: Reforming the State in Latin America. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
González G., Fernán. 1980. “Clientelismo y administración pública” [Clientelism and public administration]. Enfoques colombianos: Clientelismo 14:67–106.Google Scholar
Graham, Lawrence. 1968. Civil Service Reform in Brazil: Principles Versus Practice. Latin American Monographs no. 13. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Groves, Roderick. 1967. “Administrative Reform and the Politics of Reform: The Case of Venezuela.” Public Administration Review 27:436–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groves, Roderick. 1974. “The Colombian National Front and Administrative Reform.” Administration and Society 6:316–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, E. F. 1884. “Civil Service Reform.” New Englander 43:453–63.Google Scholar
Hartlyn, Jonathan. 1988. The Politics of Coalition Rule in Colombia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hartwig, Richard E. 1983. Roads to Reason: Transportation, Administration, and Rationality in Colombia. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1958. The Strategy of Economic Development. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. 1961. The Economic Development of Venezuela. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Karl, Terry. 1982. “The Political Economy of Petrodollars: Oil and Democracy in Venezuela.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Láfer, Celso. 1970. The Planning Process and the Political System: A Study of Kubitschek's Target Plan, 1956–1961. Latin American Studies Program Dissertation Series, no. 16. Ithaca: Cornell University.Google Scholar
López Pintor, Rafael. 1972. “Development Administration in Chile: Structural, Normative, and Behavioral Constraints to Performance.” Ph.D. diss., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Malloy, James. 1979. The Politics of Social Security in Brazil. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayhew, David. 1975. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Morcillo, Pedro Pablo. 1975. “La reforma administrativa en Colombia” [Administrative reform in Colombia]. In Reforma administrativa: Experiencias latinoamericanas [Administrative reform: Latin American experiences]. Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Administración Pública.Google Scholar
Oliveira, Lucia Lippi de. 1973. “O Partido Social Democrático” [The Social Democratic Party]. Masters thesis, Instituto Universitário de Pesquisas do Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Pinto, Magalhāes. 1960. “Relatório político do Presidente Magalhāes Pinto” [The political statement of President Magalhães Pinto]. Archives of the UDN, Fundação Getúlio Vargas.Google Scholar
Rial, Juan. 1985. Elecciones 1984: Un triunfo del centro [Elections of 1984: Triumph of the center]. Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental.Google Scholar
Ruddle, Kenneth, and Gillette, Philip, eds. 1972. Latin American Political Statistics: Supplement to the Statistical Abstract of Latin America. Los Angeles: University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Schattschneider, Emil E. 1942. Party Government. New York: Rinehart.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Steffen. 1974. “Bureaucrats As Modernizing Brokers?” Comparative Politics 6:425–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, Gilbert. 1963. “Administration, Values, and the Merit System in Brazil.” In Perspectives of Brazilian Public Administration, vol. 1, ed. Daland, Robert. Los Angeles: University of Southern California and Fundação Getúlio Vargas.Google Scholar
Siegel, Gilbert. 1966. “The Vicissitudes of Government Reform in Brazil: A Study of the DASP.” Ph.D. diss., University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Singer, Paulo. 1965. “A política das classes dominantes” [Politics of the dominant classes]. In Política e revolução social no Brasil [Politics and social revolution in Brazil], ed. Ianni, Octávio. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira.Google Scholar
Skowronek, Steven. 1979. Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Solaún, Mauricio. 1980. “Colombian Politics: Historical Characteristics and Problems.” In Politics of Compromise, ed. Berry, R. Albert, Hellman, Ronald G., and Solaún, Mauricio. New Brunswick: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Souza, Maria do Carmo Campello de. 1976. Estado e partidos políticos no Brasil [The state and political parties in Brazil]. Sāo Paulo: Alfa-Omega.Google Scholar
Stewart, Bill. 1978. Change and Bureaucracy: Public Administration in Venezuela. James Sprunt Studies in History and Political Science, no. 56. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Tapia-Videla, Jorge Iván. 1969. “Bureaucratic Power in a Developing Country: The Case of the Chilean Social Security Administration.” Ph.D. diss., University of Texas.Google Scholar
Taylor, Philip B. 1952. “The Uruguayan Coup d'État of 1933.” Hispanic American Historical Review 32:301–20.Google Scholar
Taylor, Philip B. 1960. Government and Politics of Uruguay. Studies in Political Science, no. 7. New Orleans: Tulane University Press.Google Scholar
Urzúa Valenzuela, Germán, and Barzelatto, Ana María García. 1971. Diagnóstico de la burocracia chilena (1818–1969) [Diagnosis of the Chilean bureaucracy (1818–1969)]. Santiago: Editorai Jurídica de Chile.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1977. Political Brokers in Chile: Local Government in a Centralized Polity. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1978. The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Chile. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1984. “Parties, Politics, and the State in Chile: The Higher Civil Service.” In Bureaucrats and Policy Making: A Comparative Overview, ed. Suleiman, Ezra. New York: Holmes & Meier.Google Scholar
Valenzuela, Arturo. 1985. “Origins and Characteristics of the Chilean Party System: A proposal for a Parliamentary Form of Government.” Working Paper no. 164. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center.Google Scholar
Van Riper, Paul. 1958. History of the United States Civil Service. Evanston: Row, Peterson.Google Scholar
Venturini, Angel R. 1984. Estadísticas electorales: Elecciones nacionales 1926–1982, elecciones internas 1982 [Electoral statistics: National elections 1926–1982, primary elections 1982]. Montevideo: Ediciones de la Banda Oriental.Google Scholar
Vidal Perdomo, Jaime. 1982. “La reforma administrativa de 1968 en Colombia” [The 1968 administrative reform in Colombia]. International Review of Administrative Science 48:77–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vieira, Astério Dardeau. 1967. A Administração do pessoal vista pelos chefes de serviço [Personnel administration as seen by agency heads]. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getûlio Vargas.Google Scholar
Wahrlich, Beatriz. 1964. Administracão de pessoal: Princípios e técnicas [Personnel administration: Principles and techniques]. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Getú;lio Vargas.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.