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Articles

Vol. 37 No. 1 (2017)

The cost of coordinating: the number of presidential candidates in Latin American elections, 1993-2010

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-090X2017000100002
Submitted
December 13, 2019
Published
2017-04-30

Abstract

The number of candidates competing in elections may have significant political consequenc­es. In Latin America, presidential contests in many countries yield a large number of can­didates, which contradicts theoretical expectations based on the fact that this is effectively a single-member competition. I provide an explanation based on coordination cost incurred by candidatess in unstable and low-programmatic electoral markets. Given this cost, we should expect entry decisions to exceed the theoretical upper limit. At the empirical level, the expla­nation is tested using statistical models of presidential election data in 18 Latin American countries between 1993 and 2010. I find evidence in support of the hypothesis that unstable and low-programmatic electoral markets are associated with a larger than expected number of presidential candidates.

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