The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil (Interests, Identities, And Institutions In Comparative Politics)

Many countries have experimented with different electoral rules in order either to increase involvement in the political system or make it easier to form stable governments. Barry Ames explores this important topic in one of the world's most populous and important democracies, Brazil. This book locates one of the sources of Brazil's "crisis of governance" in the nation's unique electoral system, a system that produces a multiplicity of weak parties and individualistic, pork-oriented politicians with little accountability to citizens. It explains the government's difficulties in adopting innovative policies by examining electoral rules, cabinet formation, executive-legislative conflict, party discipline and legislative negotiation. The book combines extensive use of new sources of data, ranging from historical and demographic analysis in focused comparisons of individual states to unique sources of data for the exploration of legislative politics. The discussion of party discipline in the Chamber of Deputies is the first multivariate model of party cooperation or defection in Latin America that includes measures of such important phenomena as constituency effects, pork-barrel receipts, ideology, electoral insecurity, and intention to seek reelection. With a unique data set and a sophisticated application of rational choice theory, Barry Ames demonstrates the effect of different electoral rules for election to Brazil's legislature. The readership of this book includes anyone wanting to understand the crisis of democratic politics in Brazil. The book will be especially useful to scholars and students in the areas of comparative politics, Latin American politics, electoral analysis, and legislative studies. Barry Ames is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Comparative Politics and Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh.

Ames, Barry

Legal Theory & Systems

University of Michigan Press

Many countries have experimented with different electoral rules in order either to increase involvement in the political system or make it easier to form stable governments. Barry Ames explores this important topic in one of the world's most populous and important democracies, Brazil. This book locates one of the sources of Brazil's "crisis of governance" in the nation's unique electoral system, a system that produces a multiplicity of weak parties and individualistic, pork-oriented politicians with little accountability to citizens. It explains the government's difficulties in adopting innovative policies by examining electoral rules, cabinet formation, executive-legislative conflict, party discipline and legislative negotiation.The book combines extensive use of new sources of data, ranging from historical and demographic analysis in focused comparisons of individual states to unique sources of data for the exploration of legislative politics. The discussion of party discipline in the Chamber of Deputies is the first multivariate model of party cooperation or defection in Latin America that includes measures of such important phenomena as constituency effects, pork-barrel receipts, ideology, electoral insecurity, and intention to seek reelection. With a unique data set and a sophisticated application of rational choice theory, Barry Ames demonstrates the effect of different electoral rules for election to Brazil's legislature.The readership of this book includes anyone wanting to understand the crisis of democratic politics in Brazil. The book will be especially useful to scholars and students in the areas of comparative politics, Latin American politics, electoral analysis, and legislative studies.Barry Ames is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Comparative Politics and Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh.

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

In Political Survival, Barry Ames shows how public policy, especially the public budget, is used by political leaders seeking to construct coalitions insuring their survival in office. Political theorists, comparative politics specialists, public policy experts, and scholars of Latin America will want to read this book.

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)

History

University of California Press

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1987.

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy) (Volume 12)

Americas

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (Volume 12) (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)

Persuasive Peers: Social Communication and Voting in Latin America (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology)

How voting behavior in Latin America is influenced by social networks and everyday communication among peers In Latin America's new democracies, political parties and mass partisanship are not deeply entrenched, leaving many votes up for grabs during election campaigns. In a typical presidential election season, between one-quarter and one-half of all voters--figures unheard of in older democracies--change their voting intentions across party lines in the months before election day. Advancing a new theory of Latin American voting behavior, Persuasive Peers argues that political discussions within informal social networks among family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and acquaintances explain this volatility and exert a major influence on final voting choices. Relying on unique survey and interview data from Latin America, the authors show that weakly committed voters defer to their politically knowledgeable peers, creating vast amounts of preference change as political campaigns unfold. Peer influences also matter for unwavering voters, who tend to have social contacts that reinforce their voting intentions. Social influence increases political conformity among voters within neighborhoods, states, and even entire regions, and the authors illustrate how party machines use the social topography of electorates to buy off well-connected voters who can magnify the impact of the payoff. Persuasive Peers demonstrates how everyday communication shapes political outcomes in Latin America's less-institutionalized democracies.

Baker, Andy

Rennó, Lúcio

Sociology

Princeton University Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ames, Barry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Ames, Barry

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Ames, Barry. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil (Interests, Identities, And Institutions In Comparative Politics)

The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil (Interests, Identities, And Institutions In Comparative Politics)

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy) (Volume 12)

Political Survival: Politicians and Public Policy in Latin America (Volume 12) (California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy)

Persuasive Peers: Social Communication and Voting in Latin America (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology)

Persuasive Peers: Social Communication and Voting in Latin America (Princeton Studies in Global and Comparative Sociology)