Who nominates legislative candidates? The Chamber of Deputies in Argentina

Abstract

The knowledge about who appoints candidates for legislative offices provides key information on intra-party power relations while it is also crucial to understand legislators´ behaviour once elected. In the case of Argentina, an extensive literature assumes that the governors are the excluding actors in this field, deriving from this important implications for the functioning of the political system. However, this assumption has not been verified empirically. This article contributes to fill this gap by analyzing the nomination of the 555 viable candidates to national deputy between 2009 and 2015. The results question the common sense of the current literature, identifying a variety of actors with the power to nominate candidates, measuring their respective power of nomination and exploring the conditions that strengthen the power of nomination in each case.