Abstract

FELIU RIBEIRO, Pedro. Political Parties and Foreign Policy in Latin America. Rev. mex. cienc. polít. soc [online]. 2019, vol.64, n.235, pp.353-393. ISSN 0185-1918.  https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2019.235.63207.

This article analyzes the legislative behavior on foreign policy issues in five countries of Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Paraguay. The hypothesis on the specificity of foreign policy is tested by producing a unified legislative behavior in the plenary, contrasting with a marked polarization within the domestic sphere. To test this hypothesis, ideal points of Latin American legislators are estimated in terms of foreign policy, as compared with legislative behavior in domestic politics. The conclusions show a similarity between the legislative behavior in both arenas, indicating as main explanatory factors of the vote in foreign policy the party’s ideology and the legislator’s belonging or not to the ruling party.

Keywords : legislative behavior; foreign policy; roll call votes; ideal points; Latin America.