Argentina

This chapter explores the institutional setting and identifies the critical determinants of parliamentary speechgiving in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies between 2001 and 2016. We understand and describe access to the parliamentary floor as a complex interplay between formal and informal regulations, which govern the distribution of floor time as a scarce resource between, and its allocation within, political parties. The empirical analysis combines textual data on plenary session speeches with both individual and institutional characteristics of over 1000 Argentine MPs. The analysis results indicate that participation in parliamentary debate is driven by a combination of individual traits such as seniority and MPs’ ability to hold institutionally powerful leadership positions such as that of the parliamentary bloc. At the same time, we observe that the government–opposition divide plays no significant role in parliamentary floor access, which speaks to the Argentine Chamber of Deputies’ general characterization as a consensual institution.