The Relationship between Governors and National Legislators: Rethinking the "Subnational Connection" of Argentina's Political Federalism

The recent literature on the relation between the Argentinean federalism and legislative politics assumes, but does not prove, that governors exercise much influence over national legislators. We test this idea through a novel methodological strategy: a survey of experts on the politics of each of the Argentine provinces. The alleged legislative influence of governors is only partially verified (and is larger for deputies than for senators); the evidence shows a high level of inter-provincial heterogeneity. Using multiple regression analysis we find that the main explanatory variable for this heterogeneity is the seniority of governors in their positions, which can be interpreted as a proxy for the degree of control they acquire, as time passes, over provincial political and partisan structures.