Using the U.S. as a basis of comparison, this book makes extensive use of roll call data to explore patterns of legislative politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. It extends research concerning party and legislative politics through a detailed analysis of voting patterns of parties, factions, and alliances in Latin America's Southern Cone and contrasts this data with the United States. Scott Morgenstern reveals that the U.S. parties have exhibited higher levels of unity but less flexibility in recent years.

This theoretically inspired study explores legislative politics in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Instead of beginning with an assumption that these legislatures are either rubber-stamps or obstructionist bodies, the chapters provide new data and a fresh analytical approach to describe and explain the role of these representative bodies in these consolidating democracies. For each country the book provides three chapters dedicated, in turn, to executive-legislative relations, the legislatures' organizational structure, and the policy process.