Assessing the effect of activists and their legislative allies in the amendment of bills in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT Under which conditions do movement actors have influence over legislation? Theory suggests that allies are important, but research findings are mixed. This study argues that if allies are conceptualized following an interactionist approach, they can be crucial. This study develops a new operationalization of movement allies and appraises it by examining the influence of LGBT and labor activists and their legislative allies on the approval of bill amendments in Chile. Using logistic regressions with clustered errors on 1,669 bill amendments, complemented with archival data and interviews with activists and members of congress, findings show that legislative allies have a positive effect on the passage of amendments. Moreover, their profile as social movement supporters gives legislative allies the influence to modify the content of bills when political conditions expand. These findings highlight the advantage of using an interactionist approach to identify legislative allies for movements and the value of analyzing amendments.