Persistent Party Switching in the Legislative Dynamics of Guatemala

Abstract

Guatemala is one of the Latin American countries with the highest occurrence of party switching since its democratic era in 1985. In 2016, the Congress approved a regulation to sanction this practice, affecting the possibility of re-election and holding internal positions in Congress. The objective of this study is to analyze how, even with the legal containment of party switching, legislators find limits to this regulation to run for re-election and continue their parliamentary career. Based not the ambition theory and institutionalist literature, this study analyzes legislative careers, finding that informal rules in electoral institutions are decisive in admitting legislators with party switching, while belonging to legal or illegal networks seems to drive to successful political careers and positions in the legislative power structure under the cover of strong leadership.