New Books in Political Science Lucia Motolinia, "Unity through Particularism: How Electoral Reforms Influence Parties and Legislative Behavior" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Mar 24, 2026
Lucia Motolinia, an assistant professor studying institutions and legislative behavior, discusses her book on how electoral reforms reshape party incentives in Mexico. She explores the 2014 re-election reform, staggered rollout as a natural experiment, and how candidate selection, campaign finance, and renomination influence legislative loyalty and particularistic goods. The conversation highlights institutional interactions that shape political incentives.
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Staggered Reform Enables Clean Causal Tests
- Re-election effects are isolatable because Mexico's reform was staggered across states, creating a natural experiment.
- Lucia Motolinia exploited staggered rollout to compare legislators with and without re-election incentives, avoiding selection biases.
Look Beyond Electoral Rules To Hidden Institutions
- Institutional incentives interact: candidate selection, funding sources, and legislative rules each pull legislators toward different principals.
- Motolinia stresses opening the 'black box' beyond electoral rules to include primaries, appointments, and resource flows.
Mexico Ended Eight Decades Of No Re-election
- The 2014 Mexican reform lifted an 80-year ban on consecutive re-election, allowing states to decide timing of implementation.
- Some states began re-election cycles in 2015-2018 while others waited until 2018, creating treated and control groups.
