This paper combines two significant areas of political science research: measuring individual ideological position and cohesion. Although both approaches help analyze legislative behaviors, no unified model currently integrates these dimensions. To fill this gap, the paper proposes a methodology called B-Call that combines ideological positioning with voting cohesion, treating votes as random variables. The model is empirically validated using roll-call data from the United States, Brazil, and Chile legislatures, which represent diverse legislative dynamics. The analysis aims to capture the complexities of voting and legislative behaviors, resulting in a two-dimensional indicator. This study addresses gaps in current legislative voting models, particularly in contexts with limited party control.

Urban clustering detects geographical units that are internally homogeneous and distinct from their surroundings. It has applications in urban planning, but few studies compare the effectiveness of different methods. We study two techniques that represent two families of urban clustering algorithms: Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), which operate on spatially distributed data, and Deep Modularity Networks (DMONs), which work on attributed graphs of proximal nodes. To explore the strengths and limitations of these techniques, we studied their parametric sensitivity under different conditions, considering the spatial resolution, granularity of representation, and the number of descriptive attributes, among other relevant factors. To validate the methods, we asked residents of Santiago, Chile, to respond to a survey comparing city clustering solutions produced using the different methods. Our study shows that DMON is slightly preferred over GMM and that social features seem to be the most important ones to cluster urban areas.

A growing body of literature has noted an age pattern in the sharing of false news in social media, with older people sharing more often misinformation than younger users. In this article we supplement this literature by documenting two distinct but complementary phenomena: Facebook users share more content as they get older regardless of whether it is political; and that this increment in sharing activity as age increases is more intense with political and partisan URLs. Based on the Facebook Privacy-Protected Full URLs Data Set, a vast Facebook database with demographic information of those who saw and shared links on Facebook in 46 countries, we investigate the impact of age on link-sharing activity. We found that in 43 countries, the average age of people who shared links was considerably higher than the age of those who saw the links. In a more detailed study, with Facebook users in South America, we find that the average age increases consecutively in the sharing of non-political content, in the sharing of political content, in the sharing of partisan sites and in the sharing of right-leaning partisan sites.

While much research exists on the role of digital media use in protest movements, few studies compare the long-term impact of protests on online use of alternative and mainstream digital media. This holds particularly true in countries of the global south. Our study addresses this knowledge gap by examining the massive demonstrations that occurred in Chile on 18 October 2019. Based on data from 1,221,487 Facebook posts from 31 media outlets collected 10 months before and after the protests, we detected significant discontinuities in users’ interactions with news content. Whereas both media types display different baseline levels, for alternative media, the time series reflects a “step” type of shock—a long-lasting increase in news sharing—whereas for mainstream media, it is a “pulse” type of shock—a burst of interactions that quickly returned to pre-existing levels. These results suggest that social media users relied on alternative news media to amplify counter-public spheres in Chile.

Evidence is emerging that old adults share more disinformation online and are more politically polarized. Based on the Facebook Privacy-Protected Full URLs Data Set, a vast Facebook database with demographic information of those who saw and shared links on Facebook in 46 countries, we investigated the impact of age on link-sharing activity. We found that in 45 of 46 countries, the average age of people who shared links was considerably higher than the age of those who saw the links. In a more detailed study, with 82% of Facebook users residing in South America, we found that the average age increases consecutively in the sharing of non-political content, in the sharing of political content and in the sharing of partisan sites.

How do political candidates combine social media campaign tools with on-the-ground political campaigns to pursue segmented electoral strategies? We argue that online campaigns can reproduce and reinforce segmented electoral appeals. Furthermore, our study suggests that electoral segmentation remains a broader phenomenon that includes social media as but one of many instruments by which to appeal to voters. To test our argument, we analyze the case of the 2017 legislative elections in Chile. We combine an analysis of Facebook and online electoral campaign data from 80 congressional campaigns that competed in three districts with ethnographic sources (i.e., campaigns observed on the ground and in-depth interviews with candidates). The results of this novel study suggest that intensive online campaigning mirrors offline segmentation.

The Sistema de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental (Environmental Impact Assessment System—SEIA) evaluates all projects potentially harmful to human health and the environment in Chile. Since its establishment, many projects approved by the SEIA have been contested by organized communities, especially in the energy sector. The question guiding our research is whether socio-environmental conflicts affect the evaluation times and the approval rates of projects under assessment. Using a novel database comprising all energy projects assessed by the SEIA, we analyzed 380 energy projects that entered the SEIA review process between 2012 and 2017 and matched these projects with protest events. Using linear and logit regression, we find no association between the occurrence of protests aimed at specific projects and the probability of project approval. We do, however, find that projects associated with the occurrence of protest events experience significantly longer review times. To assess the robustness of this finding, we compare two run-of-river plants proposed in Mapuche territory in Chile’s La Araucanía region. We discuss the broader implications of these findings for sustainable environmental decision making.

The purpose of this article is to explore how the features of districts affect representation activities in the Chilean Congress. Based on an analysis of interventions by deputies in the so-called Incidents Hour (Hora de Incidentes), we argue that district conditions affect the kind of appeals that deputies make. Specifically, we test two main hypotheses: a) that the degree of rurality of districts predicts greater use of policy intervention at the local level (local credit claiming), and b) that distance from the centre is an incentive for deputies to taking a position on local issues (local position taking). This article contributes to an understanding of how institutional spaces in the Congress serve not only as instruments for legislation but also, and with equal relevance, for representing constituents at the district level.

How does ethnic status affect social stratification in C hile? D espite a rich theoretical debate in the literature on social stratification, there is a shortage of empirical approaches to this phenomenon in L atin A merica. This research note seeks to bridge the analytical gap by describing the social exclusion of indigenous people in C hile. From a case study in L a A raucanía region and using statistical techniques to give equal weightings to indigenous and non‐indigenous groups (specifically M apuches and non‐ M apuches), we attempt to show that given equal socio‐demographic conditions, the incomes of both groups are similar in the low and middle strata, and differentiated in the higher strata.

In this paper, we analyze if political motives affect the allocation of funds from the Central Government to the local level in Chile. Notably, Chile is an excellent case study for understanding political distribution under extensive controls on expenditure. Collecting local-level data of two infrastructure funding programs and using a Sharp Regression Discontinuity methodology, we find evidence of two phenomenons: (i) a political criterion influences the funding allocation to the local level in Chile; and (ii) there exists an electoral cycle in local funding. In consequence, we can conclude that political distribution is quite resistant to expenditure controls.

Do parties enjoy an advantage to incumbency in multi-member districts? In this paper we answer this question by adapting a regression-discontinuity design to multi-member districts in congressional elections in Chile. The electoral system in place generates discontinuities in the number of elected representatives from each coalition at the 1/3 and 2/3 thresholds of the two-party vote share. Regression-discontinuity estimates indicate that, by holding two seats as opposed to holding only one, the left-leaning coalition obtains an extra 4.5% vote share in the next election and increases by 28 percentage points the probability of electing two candidates again. These results are in line with those obtained in previous studies in the U.S. but contrast with results obtained in developing countries which find a negative advantage to incumbency.

This research note presents a classification of Latin American parties and party systems, according to mainstream ideological currents and country-specific competitive patterns. This classification is based on a preliminary analysis of the results of an expert survey on Latin American party systems that was carried out from 2007 to 2009. We factor-analyze parties' positions on a wide set of issues and estimate three (talent) ideological dimensions: statism, conservatism (moral, religious, nationalist), and attitudes towards democracy. On the basis of these three ideological dimensions we perform a cluster analysis and classify the political parties of the region in ten "ideological families".

This paper seeks to investigate the behavior presented by the chamber of deputies, with regards to the bills which were presented by the executive power during the 2002–2006 legislative term. The author demonstrates that one of the most relevant reasons that the government of Ricardo Lagos was able to successfully pass the bills it favored, was the high unity of the governmental party and the heterogeneous action of the opposition bloc. Thus, through the use of Roll Call Vote analysis, this article assigns each of the parties and coalitions a percentage point relative to its degree of approval to the Executive's initiatives. This method indicates that the "Renovacion Nacional" was a pivotal party, which fluctuated between supporting the ruling party and maintaining its stance as an opposition party.

en base a la identificación de corrientes ideológicas y patrones de competencia nacionales, esta nota de investigación presenta una clasificación de los partidos políticos y sistemas de partido de américa Latina.La clasificación que presentamos se basa en un primer análisis de los resultados de una encuesta a expertos realizada entre 2007 y 2009, para sondear las características de los partidos políticos de la región.en base a una estrategia de análisis factorial, aplicada a un conjunto amplio de preguntas incluidas en la encuesta, construimos tres dimensiones ideológicas (latentes): estatismo, conservadurismo (moral, religioso, y nacionalista), y actitudes acerca del régimen democrático.utilizando estas tres dimensiones ideológicas como insumo para un análisis de clusters, clasificamos a los partidos políticos de la región en diez "familias ideológicas". Palabras clave: partidos-encuesta a expertos