Edward L. Gibson

Federalism and Low-Maintenance Constituencies: Territorial Dimensions of Economic Reform in Argentina

How does the territorial distribution of political and economic resources within national polities influence politics and policy making? This article examines the electoral dynamics of market reform in Argentina between 1989 and 1995. It provides insights into the way that the distribution of economic and institutional resources in federal systems shapes policy making and coalition building options for reformist governments. The electoral viability of the governing Peronist Party during the economic reform period was facilitated by the regional phasing of the costs of market reform. Structural reforms were concentrated primarily on economically developed regions of the country, while public spending and patronage in economically marginal but politically overrepresented regions sustained support for the governing party. Statistical analyses contrast patterns of spending and public sector employment in “metropolitan” and “peripheral” regions of the country during the reform period, as well as the social bases of electoral support in those regions. A conceptual distinction between “high-maintenance” and “low-maintenance” constituencies is also introduced to shed light on the dynamics of patronage spending in contexts of market reform.

Class and conservative parties : Argentina in comparative perspective

This work examines conservative politics in Latin America, focusing on Argentina. Rather than ideological factors, the author sees onservative parties as defined by the fact that they are dominated by the upper strata of society. Analyzing conservative efforts to organize democratically, the text looks at the continuing problems of conservative party development in modern Argentina, offering theoretical insights into the dynamics of conservative electoral coalition-building.

Federalismo realocativo: sobre-representação legislativa e gastos públicos no hemisfério ocidental

This article is an inquiry into the political economy of federalism and the basic question explored is, does the overrepresentation of territories (states or provinces) in national legislatures of federal systems affect the territorial distribution of public spending by federal governments? The hypothesis to be tested is that it does, and that territorial overrepresentation produces a distortion of federal spending which benefits the population that live in overrepresented territories. To capture this connection it was introduced a conceptual distinction between territorial overrepresentation and the non-proportional distribution of public funds: countries where this connection exists are identified as cases of reallocative federalism, whereas countries with territorial patterns of public spending that are proportional to population are identified as cases of proportional federalism. The evidence is drawn from subnational-level data (at the provincial/state level) from the Western Hemisphere’s four largest federal countries, the United States of America, Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina. benefits populations living in overrepresented territories.