The continuation of the party discipline in the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico

Abstract

The research topic emerges from the present situation of the Mexican party system and party discipline that characterizes the behavior of legislators when taking decisions about the policy making. Thus, the main argument is the analysis of party discipline in legislative decisions of the Chamber of Deputies, and therefore its impact on political outcomes. The overall objective is to observe the role of party discipline when deputies vote for a political decision in the Chamber of Deputies. Hence, this implies three specific objectives: a) to dispel the myth of the existence of legislative paralysis when achieving new policies; b) to observe that party discipline is an important variable when the deputies vote for or against policy initiatives; and c) to identify the party discipline as a factor for setting the political agenda. However, the research design hypothesis states that within a multi-party system, party discipline does not truncate the legislative process for decision making but may limit it, prolonging the decision into an extensive process.