The name is absent

52

Chapter 5: How Career Background affects Legislative Performance

Securing the Past, securing the Future

Along this dissertation, it was stated in several opportunities that a substantive
part of the sources of political power in Argentina is subnational, even for national-level
positions. In consequence, I posited that politicians have strong incentives to create ties
with voters, groups and territorially delimited support bases if they want to secure a
future in politics. Sometimes, the immediate political expectation involves an executive
office, sometimes a legislative position, or maybe some other spot that does not directly
depend on electoral votes (i.e. minister or advisor). However, even the pursuit of these
поп-elected positions is more likely to succeed if a politician can demonstrate a political
capital at the bargaining stage.

Thus, ambition triggers the creation and improvement of local bases of support.
However, conservation of what has been already won is also important. Nothing beats a
politician who can show a bulletproof district when negotiating positions or threatening
colleagues in an electoral race. For people with static ambition, the consequence of that
strength should be permanent reelection. For progressively ambitious politicians, things
get more complicated. Imagine, a prestigious mayor, who has been reelected several
times_λ now aspires to become a governor. In order to take that step, she might need to
demonstrate that her reputation exceeds her district's boundaries. Thus, she might
accept the challenge of running in the first place of the Federal Deputies' party list in the
midterm elections. Meanwhile, someone else has filled her municipal position: a person
of her confidence, a со-partisan with personal interests, a member of a different faction
or simply a rival. In any of these possibilities, the ambitious politician is likely not to

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