Dialogic bridges: Voices between ideological frontiers

Abstract

This study proposed a methodology for identifying deputies with the potential to establish a more effective articulation between disparate ideological blocs within a legislative body. This approach was predicated on network analysis. The network under consideration had, as its core, vote agreement among deputies, from which three metrics were calculated: bridge coefficient, intermediation centrality, and bridge centrality. Following a thorough descriptive and statistical analysis of the metrics in question, the 10 deputies with the most bridge centrality were identified. Bridge centrality was a metric that combined global structural influence with the connection between local communities. The study proffered a replicable methodology for identifying, solely on the basis of network structure, agents with a propensity to function as mediators in contexts of political fragmentation. This identification was a critical component of research focused on governability, the formation of coalitions, and the mediation of conflicts within multiparty systems.