What does it take to make a coalition successful? Bigger coalitions are more likely to be successful because the GATT/WTO is a consensus-based institution and countries are informally penalized if they isolate themselves. Through a Bayesian statistical analysis, the article corroborates the above hypothesis. To further investigate the research question, qualitative case studies of the G-10 in the Uruguay Round and the Public Health Coalition in the Doha Round are conducted. These cases show that the more convincing the framing of a position, the better are the chances of coalitions keeping a large number of followers and supporters, thereby affecting their odds of success. By building a unique database and applying a new research design to the topic, the study rigorously tests theories about coalitions that had previously only been proposed but not empirically analyzed.

The aim of this article is to discuss the distribution of preferences of members of the Chilean and Argentinian Congress on foreign policy issues through the analysis of roll call votes. This goal is guided by the debate in Latin American literature concerning the decision-making process in foreign policy. The predominant argument focuses on the Executive as the principal decision-maker, disregarding the Legislative as relevant in this field. Thus, legislators would tend to abdicate from their preferences in determining foreign policy. Confronting this argument, we have many studies emphasising the importance of domestic actors in the foreign policy decision-making process. This article proposes to analyse two case studies in comparative perspective: the lower houses of the national parliaments of Argentina and Chile. The result is that the party ideology is a relevant explanatory factor of deputies’ votes. Although the argument is more evident for the Chilean case, it is possible to argue that there is a similar pattern to the structuring of deputies’ votes in the two countries, both on the domestic and on the international arena. The methodology used makes it possible to infer legislators’ preferences by means of roll call votes and of the construction of maps of deputies’ ideal points in foreign policy terms, as well as the correlation between Chilean and Argentinian parties’ ideological classifications. Votes on foreign policy questions during the 2002-2006/2007 legislatures are considered.

The aim of this article is to discuss the distribution of preferences of members of the Chilean and Argentinian Congress on foreign policy issues through the analysis of roll call votes. This goal is guided by the debate in Latin American literature concerning the decision-making process in foreign policy. The predominant argument focuses on the Executive as the principal decision-maker, disregarding the Legislative as relevant in this field. Thus, legislators would tend to abdicate from their preferences in determining foreign policy. Confronting this argument, we have many studies emphasising the importance of domestic actors in the foreign policy decision-making process. This article proposes to analyse two case studies in comparative perspective: the lower houses of the national parliaments of Argentina and Chile. The result is that the party ideology is a relevant explanatory factor of deputies' votes. Although the argument is more evident for the Chilean case, it is possible to argue that there is a similar pattern to the structuring of deputies' votes in the two countries, both on the domestic and on the international arena. The methodology used makes it possible to infer legislators' preferences by means of roll call votes and of the construction of maps of deputies' ideal points in foreign policy terms, as well as the correlation between Chilean and Argentinian parties' ideological classifications. Votes on foreign policy questions during the 2002-2006/2007 legislatures are considered.

O empresariado brasileiro envolveu-se em um notável processo de organização e mobilização política na década de 1990. Essa ação desdobrou-se em diferentes áreas, tanto na esfera doméstica, com a campanha pela redução do custo Brasil, quanto na esfera internacional, com a criação da Coalizão Empresarial Brasileira. Esse resultado decorreu da confluência de um processo de natureza econômica, que erigiu a competitividade em meta prioritária das empresas, e um processo de natureza política, com a atuação de lideranças que ajudaram a deflagrar e a sustentar a ação coletiva. A iniciativa para a ação coletiva partiu exatamente de onde menos esperavam os expoentes da tese da debilidade política do empresariado brasileiro: a Confederação Nacional da Indústria, uma entidade setorial de cúpula do sistema corporativista. Este artigo, portanto, desafia, simultaneamente, duas afirmações centrais que estão presentes em parte significativa da literatura contemporânea: primeiro, a idéia de que o empresariado brasileiro é incapaz de ação coletiva; segundo, a idéia de que o corporativismo é a causa principal dessa incapacidade.

The Brazilian business community became involved in a noteworthy process of organization and political mobilization throughout the 1990’s. Its action branched out into different areas, both in the domestic sphere, with the campaign for the reduction of the Brazil cost; and in the international sphere, with the creation of the Brazilian Business Coalition. This result stemmed from the confluence of a process of economic nature, which set up competitiveness to the level of a top-priority goal for the firms; and a process of political nature, with the performance of political entrepreneurs that helped to start off and to sustain the collective action. The initiative for collective action originated from where the exponents of the theory of political weakness of the Brazilian business community least expected it to: the National Confederation of Industry, a peak association of the corporatist system of representation of industrial interests. This article, therefore, simultaneously challenges two central statements that are present in a significant part of the literature: first, the idea that the Brazilian business community is incapable of collective action; second, the idea that corporatism is the primary cause of this incapacity.

O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar o posicionamento do governo do Partido dos Trabalhadores diante das negociações da Área de Livre Comércio das Américas (Alca). Procura-se mostrar que, entre a campanha eleitoral e a participação efetiva nas negociações, a postura do partido sofreu mudanças graças aos constrangimentos inerentes ao processo negociador. Além disso, o texto tenta analisar potenciais incentivos positivos da adesão e negativos da não-adesão do Brasil à Alca. Incentivos esses pouco explorados no debate sobre a política comercial brasileira.

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the position of Brazil's Work Party about the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTTA). The paper intend to show that the party's position changed between elections run and the beginning of negotiation process because constraints of the process. The paper intend also to foster comprehension toward incentives, positives and negatives, about the Brazilian decision take of the FTAA. Incentives, by the way, little focused in Brazil's debate about this theme.

O objetivo deste artigo é analisar a evolução de um regime hemisférico de segurança tendo em vista duas questões fundamentais: o impacto do Mercosul no equilíbrio geopolítico continental e o papel do Brasil como ator-chave na conformação deste arranjo hemisférico de segurança. Nossa hipótese é de que, tanto na dimensão regional, quanto global, o Brasil tem atuado no sentido de contrabalançar a hegemonia norte-americana, reforçando a correlação entre o status de potência regional e o cálculo de opções internacionais.

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the evolution of a hemispheric regime of security using two basic issues: the impact of Mercosur in the regional geopolitical balance and the role of Brazil as a key-actor in the establishment of this agenda for regional security. Our hypothesis is that Brazil, as much in the regional, as in the global dimension, has acted so as to counterbalance the United States hegemony, strengthening the correlation between the status of regional power and the calculus of international options.