Presidencias de comisión e institucionalización de la Cámara de Diputados en México (1997-2018)

Abstract

This article studies the selection of committee chairs as a substantive indicator of parliamentary institutionalization. The case selected to carry out this analysis is the Mexican Chamber of Deputies during the 21 years of non-majoritarian congresses (1997-2018). This legislature is appropriate for questioning the traditional precepts of informational theory given the ban on immediate reelection of its members and the lack of seniority norms that reward experienced congressmen with hierarchical positions in committees. By analyzing an original database with biographic, institutional, partisan, and electoral information of the 3,841 federal congressmen who held a seat in the assembly between 1997 and 2018, results of logistic models with conditioned effects suggest that both the parliamentary experience and the acquisition of specialized policy knowledge in extra-congressional arenas, became increasingly relevant as factors for committee chair selection.