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Legislators’ Positions and Party System Competition in Central America

This article is a first attempt to explore the characteristics of political competition in Central America, a subject that has been the focus of little research to date. The article provides a detailed spatial analysis of Central American legislators and parties, as well as an analysis of the number and nature of the political dimensions dividing legislators and major parties for the period 1998–2002. This multi-level analysis illustrates the significant role of agency in the translation of cleavages to the arena of political competition. The article explores the relationship between party system polarization and the number and substance of politically relevant dimensions. It uses data from the Parliamentary Elites of Latin America Survey Project, and the statistical analysis involves factor and discriminant analysis of Central American legislatures.