Operationalizing Legislative Bodies: A Methodological and Empirical Perspective

TL;DR

This paper reviews Bayesian ideal point estimation in legislative studies, introduces a new taxonomy for its applications, and demonstrates its use with a case study of Colombia's House of Representatives.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review, a novel taxonomy, and applies the Bayesian ideal point estimator to Latin American legislatures, especially in democratic presidential systems.

Findings

Latin American legislatures are under-analyzed using this methodology.

The Bayesian estimator can operationalize electoral behavior in Latin American parliaments.

A case study of Colombia's House demonstrates practical application.

Abstract

This manuscript extensively reviews applications, extensions, and models derived from the Bayesian ideal point estimator. We primarily focus our attention on studies conducted in the United States as well as Latin America. First, we provide a detailed description of the Bayesian ideal point estimator. Next, we propose a new taxonomy to synthesize and frame technical developments and applications associated with the estimator in the context of North American and Latin American governing bodies. The literature available in Latin America allows us to conclude that few legislatures in the region have been analyzed using the methodology under discussion. Also, we highlight those parliaments of Latin America embedded in democratic presidential systems as novel scenarios for operationalizing the electoral behavior of legislative bodies through nominal voting data. Our findings show some alternatives for future research. Finally, to fix ideas and illustrate the capabilities of the Bayesian ideal point estimator, we present an application involving the Colombian House of Representatives 2010-2014.