Tell me what you assemble and I will tell you what you are. Electoral coalition building in Argentina, 1995-2015

Abstract

Argentina’s competitive dynamic has acquired a coalitional component in the last two decades. After the constitutional reform of 1994, more and more political parties privilege the formation of joint agreements with different partners to compete for public office at stake. The present work aims to propose that the construction of electoral coalitions is a strategic decision of the party elites. They can privilege two different models of construction: doing it by territorial penetration or by territorial diffusion. The privileged model impacts on the degree of electoral agreement reached by party elites. I apply this analysis to the presidential coalitions and national deputies that competed in the country between 1995 and 2015.