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Same-sex marriage has risen to the top of political agendas across Latin America, but it is still illegal in many countries. Public support about the issue varies greatly, and the roles of the courts, presidents, and legislatures have also differed. This article focuses on legislators because they are charged with representing the public and converting demands into policy. Although many legislatures have now voted on the issue, the literature has not intensively examined the policy makers' attitudes toward same-sex marriage. This study applies a theoretical framework that extends theories considering context and social contact and uses a survey of the region's legislators to study the correlates of support for same-sex marriage. Although the study also tests for individual-level variables (e.g., gender and ideology), the models focus on the contextual role of religiosity. The results show that having more secular colleagues encourages even pious legislators to support same-sex marriage. Keywords: legislators; same-sex marriage; religiosity; opinion survey; LGBTQ+ rights El matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo (MPMS) ha marcado la agenda politica en muchos paises de America Latina, aunque aun es ilegal en muchos paises del continente. El apoyo publico varia mucho en la region, asi como tambien los roles de los tribunales, presidentes y legislaturas. En este articulo nos enfocamos en los legisladores, ya que son los encargados de representar al publico y convertir sus demandas en politica publica. Si bien muchas legislaturas han discutido el tema, la literatura no ha examinado de manera intensiva las actitudes de estos representantes hacia el MPMS. Para analizar este fenomeno aplicamos un marco teorico que amplia las teorias basadas en el contexto y contacto social, y utilizamos una encuesta implementada a legisladores en la region para estudiar las variables que correlacionan con el apoyo al MPMS. Si bien tambien evaluamos variables a nivel individual (tales como genero e ideologia), nuestros modelos se enfocan en el rol contextual de la religiosidad. Los resultados muestran que tener mas colegas seculares alienta a los legisladores, incluso a los creyentes, a apoyar el matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo. Palabras clave: legisladores; matrimonio entre personas del mismo sexo; religiosidad; encuesta; opinion; derechos LGBTQ+, Despite the provocative question posed by the 2014 New York Times article 'Why Is Latin America So Progressive on Gay Rights?' public support for the issue has not followed a [...]

This essay reviews the following works: The Two Faces of Institutional Innovation: Promises and Limits of Democratic Participation in Latin America. By Leonardo Avritzer. Northampton: Edward Elgar, 2017. Pp. 192. [...]

Although the US preserves a dominant position in Latin America, China's rise poses economic and political challenges and has set up a potential battle for the hearts and minds of the Latin American populace. To explore this theme, this article considers the level of support among Latin Americans toward China and the United States at the country and individual levels, the causes of variance thereof, and whether the views of China, the newcomer, covary with views about the region's traditional power broker. We provide evidence that the views do not covary, either positively or negatively, largely because while attitudes toward the United States are structured by ideology and other factors, attitudes toward China are relatively unstructured. This lack of structure appears to be the result of China's success in appealing to diverse sectors of Latin American society, which, in turn, should positively influence its future trajectory. Aunque Estados Unidos mantiene una posicion dominante en America Latina, el ascenso de China plantea desafios economicos y politicos y ha creado una batalla potencial por los corazones y mentes de la poblacion latinoamericana. Para explorar este tema, este articulo considera el nivel de apoyo entre los latinoamericanos hacia China y Estados Unidos a nivel nacional e individual, las causas de la variacion del mismo, y si las opiniones sobre el recien llegado coinciden con las opiniones sobre el poder tradicional en la region. Proporcionamos evidencia de que los puntos de vista no covarian--positiva o negativamente--en gran medida porque, si bien las actitudes hacia los Estados Unidos estan estructuradas por la ideologia y otros factores, las actitudes hacia China estan relativamente desetructuradas. Esta ausencia de estructura podria ser el resultado del exito de China al atraer opiniones positivas de diversos sectores de la sociedad latinoamericana, lo que, a su vez, deberia influir de manera positiva en su trayectoria futura., Although the US preserves a dominant position in Latin America, China's growing influence in the region poses economic and political challenges and has set up a potential battle for the [...]

This article measures, compares, and analyzes the degree to which local factors, be they candidate qualities or district characteristics, affect electoral politics. It applies Morgenstern and Potthoff's components-of-variance model to 56 parties or coalitions to measure the 'local vote' and shows that only in some cases do local factors manifest themselves in voting patterns. To explain this finding, the authors argue that the type of executive system, ideological cohesion, and a country's ethnic heterogeneity combined with federalism are all strongly tied to the local vote patterns. Statistical tests also show that in spite of the large literature on the incentives that electoral systems can offer to candidates to pursue a personal vote, the electoral system does not have a clear impact on the local vote. Keywords: personal vote; nationalization; electoral systems; presidentialism, parliamentarism

This article discusses the relationships between Latin American presidents and the legislative bodies. The author argues that regardless of the perception of the dominant Latin American president, political strategies are often times dependent on the support of the legislatures.