The Power of Opposition
Legislative Effectiveness in Mexico's Multiparty Democracy
Yann P Kerevel author Sergio A Bárcena Juárez author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publishing:10th Dec '26
£80.00
This title is due to be published on 10th December, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
The authors develop a theory to explain why opposition legislators are often more effective lawmakers than presidential co-partisans in multiparty presidential systems.
The Power of Opposition: Legislative Effectiveness in Mexico's Multiparty Democracy develops a theory of legislative effectiveness in presidential systems where it is rare for presidents to control a majority of seats in the legislature. Legislators belonging to the president’s party are often constrained in their behavior as the executive branch has an overarching interest in ensuring copartisan legislative proposals fit within the president’s agenda. Executive bills often require bargains with the opposition to secure votes, and legislators from the president’s party may find their bills coopted by the president, or blocked if they conflict with presidential priorities. As a result, legislators from governing parties are generally less effective when it comes to their own initiatives. Presidents allow the opposition to push their own priorities through the legislative process, or provide credit-claiming opportunities on major presidential initiatives. Since opposition legislators can exchange votes on executive bills for presidential support on opposition-led initiatives, they are generally more effective at navigating their own proposals through the legislative process. Yann P. Kerevel and Sergio A. Bárcena Juárez demonstrate support for this argument drawing on extensive quantitative data from Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies from 1997-2024, and interviews with numerous lawmakers and staffers.
This book is a must-read for scholars of legislative politics in Mexico and beyond. It offers a compelling and rich account of legislative effectiveness, backed by original data and careful empirical analysis. By placing opposition actors at the center of lawmaking, it challenges conventional wisdom and makes an important contribution to the study of representation in multi-party presidential systems. -- Lucia Motolinia, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
The Power of Opposition draws on a wide body of qualitative data and empirical analyses to provide a fascinating analysis of the different institutional and personal factors that contribute to legislators successfully advancing their policy agendas in the Mexican national legislature. This book is incredibly valuable for anyone who seeks to understand legislative process and politics in Mexico. It will likewise serve as a template for others to build upon as they seek to explore the causes and consequences of legislative effectiveness in comparative political institutions. -- Alan E. Wiseman, Vanderbilt University, USA
Who holds lawmaking power in multiparty legislatures? Kerevel and Bárcena Juárez construct a novel measure of legislative effectiveness to uncover surprising patterns of lawmaking success in the Mexican Congress. Their findings challenge conventional assumptions about coalition building, policy choice, and the strength of opposition legislators, while providing a replicable framework for studying effective lawmaking in legislatures around the world. -- Craig Volden, University of Virginia, USA
The Power of Opposition makes two indispensable contributions to the study of legislative politics in presidential systems. Kerevel and Bárcena Juárez develop a theoretically grounded and empirically compelling argument that opposition legislators—not governing-party members—drive meaningful lawmaking. Equally important, they develop a replicable measure of legislative effectiveness that travels beyond the U.S. context. Essential reading for students of comparative legislatures. -- Leslie Schwindt-Bayer, Rice University, USA
ISBN: 9781666974362
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
200 pages