Formal Comparisons of Legislative Institutions: Ideal Points from Brazilian Legislatures

As the popularity of formal analyses of legislative activity in Latin America grows, so does the importance of understanding the limits of the estimates produced by such analyses and the methodological adaptations necessary when using these measures to make formal comparisons. This research note details the considerations involved and demonstrates their significance with an empirical example using the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. This empirical analysis leads to conclusions that are the opposite of those in the literature, suggesting that such formal comparisons across institutions need to be made with care.

随着拉丁美洲地区立法活动正式分析的热度与日俱增，理解此类分析所生成估算值的局限，以及在使用这些指标开展正式比较时所需的方法论适配，其重要性也愈发凸显。本研究简报详述了相关考量要点，并以巴西众议院（Brazilian Chamber of Deputies）与联邦参议院（Federal Senate）为案例开展实证分析，以此阐明这些要点的重要意义。本次实证分析得出的结论与现有文献相悖，这表明跨机构的此类正式比较需审慎开展。