The Inter- and Intra-Party Politics of Moral Policy: Free Voting and Abortion Reform in Uruguay

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camilla Reuterswärd
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Party Line ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
Party Characteristics

Abstract Moral policies such as abortion are often up to the conscience of individual legislators who can vote against the party line without sanctions. While free votes might jeopardize reform, party leaders can enforce discipline to achieve policy objectives. This article develops a framework to explain legislative behavior on abortion. It highlights how individual-level religiosity and party characteristics—voter linkage mechanisms and elite-base ties—shape votes on proposed bills. Analyzing three attempts to decriminalize abortion in left-governed Uruguay, this article highlights party variables beyond ideology and sheds more light on the puzzle of Latin America’s slow progress on reproductive rights.

Constituency Effects and Legislative Dissent Under Closed-List Proportional Representation

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-99
Author(s):  
Eduardo Alemán ◽  
Juan Pablo Micozzi ◽  
Pablo M. Pinto ◽  
Sebastián Saiegh
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Proportional Representation ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Electoral Rules ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Electoral Incentives ◽  
Party Line ◽  
Ideological Space ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Unique Dataset

ABSTRACTAccording to conventional wisdom, closed-list proportional representation (CLPR) electoral systems create incentives for legislators to favor the party line over their voters’ positions. However, electoral incentives may induce party leaders to tolerate “shirking” by some legislators, even under CLPR. This study argues that in considering whose deviations from the party line should be tolerated, party leaders exploit differences in voters’ relative electoral influence resulting from malapportionment. We expect defections in roll call votes to be more likely among legislators elected from overrepresented districts than among those from other districts. We empirically test this claim using data on Argentine legislators’ voting records and a unique dataset of estimates of voters’ and legislators’ placements in a common ideological space. Our findings suggest that even under electoral rules known for promoting unified parties, we should expect strategic defections to please voters, which can be advantageous for the party’s electoral fortunes.

Life in the Middle

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neilan S. Chaturvedi
Keyword(s):  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Legislative Power ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Congressional Record ◽  
The Us ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Us Senate ◽  
Two Sides

For almost thirty years, political scientists have believed that the US Senate would be less affected by partisan polarization due to the existence of a handful of moderate senators who would act as power brokers between the two sides, yet year after year we see partisan gridlock. Life in the Middle argues that the belief in the powerful, pivotal moderate neglects their electoral circumstances and overestimates their legislative power. Indeed, not all senators are elected under equal circumstances where the modern centrist has to balance between two conflicting constituencies like Susan Collins in Maine, or represents a state where the opposition outnumbers their base like Joe Manchin in West Virginia. Using data compiled from the Congressional Record, the book examines the legislative behavior of moderates and finds that they seldom amend legislation to their preferences, rarely speak on the record, and often lose on final votes. Using unique interview data with nineteen legislative directors and six retired centrist senators, it also finds that the behind-the-scenes conversations mirror the on-stage behavior where centrists are not influential or viewed as pivotal by party leaders. Furthermore, moderates reported less satisfaction with legislative outcomes than their peers. Life in the Middle suggests that lawmaking needs to be re-evaluated as being much more variable and less reliant on the work of moderates and more on party leaders. Indeed, the mainstream concerns about polarization and its negative effects of increased gridlock and ideological legislation may be true.

Factors Affecting Attitudes Towards Broadband Adoption in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

2011 ◽  
pp. 380-393
Author(s):  
Vishanth Weerakkody
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Slow Progress ◽  
Survey Approach ◽  
Main Influence

Utilizing a survey approach, this research set out to explore the reasons for the slow progress in broadband adoption and investigates the factors that may be affecting the adoption of broadband by KSA consumers. Particular emphasis was placed on individual-level factors such as social and cultural influences. The key findings were that the factors with the main influence on attitude towards adoption of broadband were: (1) usefulness, (2) service quality, (3) age, (4) usage, (5) type of connection, and (6) type of accommodation. Contrary to prediction, although socio-cultural factors such as regulation through filtration of broadband were found to have no significant influence on the adoption of broadband, consumers were aware and largely did not like the regulation. The chapter also provides a discussion on research implications, limitations, and future directions.

Presidentialism and the Parties in the French Fifth Republic

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wright Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Party Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Parties ◽  
Fifth Republic ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Fourth Republic

PARTY POLITICS UNDER THE FIFZH REPUBLIC HAVE BEEN COMPLEX AND confused. New parties such as the Independent Republicans and the Centre Démocrate have appeared, and old ones such as the MRP and the CNIP-two of the great pivotal parties of the Fourth Republic - have disappeared as national forces. The Gaullists have grown, the communists have stagnated, the radicals have declined, and the socialists have experienced dramatically changing fortunes. The observer will be bewildered by the appearance and disappearance of party coalitions, by the political dissensions within the parties, by the bitter squabbles between parties which are in nominal alliance, and by the Quixotic waverings of certain party leaders - veritable weathercocks susceptible to the slightest political draught.

scholarly journals Members versus Experts: The Perceptions of Party Leadership Styles in New Democracies

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 810-825
Author(s):  
Sergiu Gherghina
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Styles ◽  
New Democracies ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Party Members

Party leaders are highly relevant for contemporary political arenas. Their leadership styles have been often investigated relative to their behaviour and attitudes, but rarely through the lenses of those who observe them closely. This article aims to fill this gap in the literature and compares the ways in which party members and experts evaluate leaders on the transactional–transformational continuum. It uses individual-level data from a survey conducted in 2018 with a modified version of the MLQ. The analysis focuses on eight parliamentary parties in Romania and Bulgaria, covering 19 party leaders and 33 terms over a period of 15 years (2004–2018). The results indicate important differences in the assessment of party leaders, with members having more heterogeneous opinions and seeing them more transformational in comparison to experts.

Gender and party cohesion in the Italian parliament: a spatial analysis

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Licia C. Papavero ◽  
Francesco Zucchini
Keyword(s):  
Principal Component ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Multidimensional Space ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Men 2 ◽  
Lower Chamber ◽  
Party Cohesion ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

Studies on female legislative behavior suggest that women parliamentarians may challenge party cohesion by allying across party lines. In this paper we analyze a specific parliamentary activity – bill co-sponsorship – in the Italian lower Chamber, between 1979 and 2016, as a source of information about MPs’ original preferences to study how gender affects party cohesion. Do women form a separated group in the Italian parliament? On average, are they more or less distant from the center of their parties than men? Does gender affect systematically party cohesion? A principal component analysis of co-sponsorship data allows us to identify the ideal points of all MPs in a multidimensional space for each legislature. Based on these data we estimate the impact of gender on party cohesion at the individual level while controlling for the impact of several other variables of different kind (individual, partisan, and institutional). We find that: (1) on average, women show lower cohesion as a group inside different parties and higher party cohesion than men; (2) the influence of gender on party cohesion is not conditional upon individual characteristics, upon the size and organization of parliamentary parties, and upon the share of women in their parliamentary groups; (3) the different behavior of women MPs may depend on the different patterns of recruitment in the parties.

scholarly journals Lithuanian Political Parties’ Attitudes toward European Integration: an analysis of 2016 Parties’ Manifestos

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-501
Author(s):  
Inokaitytė Šmagarienė
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
European Integration ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Instrumental Rationality ◽  
National Election ◽  
Strategic Actions ◽  
Election Manifestos ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
The Eu

The paper introduced here focuses on the particularities of Lithuanian political parties’ discourse on European integration. The questions which this paper seeks to answer are: how much ‘Europe’ actually figures into parties’ national election manifestos and what parties says about the nature of the European polity and the policy objectives to be implemented by the EU? The results of the analysis show that, although in principle there is a support to the European integration, political parties follow the logic of instrumental rationality containing strategic actions and specific domestic interest implementation in the united Europe. These contradictions may lead to the inconsistencies of party politics toward European integration.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ppaa.16.3.19344

Greening British Businesses

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Curtis Ziniel ◽  
Tony Bradley
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Business Development ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Ethical Business ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
National Statistics ◽  
Main Factors ◽  
Business Sectors

This article examines relationships between a new wave of radical green activism and an increase in greening businesses in Britain. We examine the spread of the movement through the formation of businesses implementing more environmentally sustainable practices. Our empirical data, combined with Office for National Statistics data, are drawn from both the supply and the demand side of the economy. Our analysis tests key individual-level determinants (education, energy conscientiousness, localism) and area-level determinants (party politics, population density). Our findings indicate the main factors in determining the growth of the ethical marketplace. We draw conclusions about relationships between environmental social movements and SME business sectors. Our results have implications for research on ethical business development and consumerism and for literature on social movements and political geography.

The Selection of Party Leaders in Poland: Democratisation of Rules and Predictability of Results

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maciej Hartliński
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Extensive Investigation ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The objective of this analysis is to examine political party leadership with reference to the rules and results of its selection process in post-communist Poland. The exploration of these matters is based on qualitative and quantitative data concerning 16 different political parties and 80 selections they conducted in the years 1990-2013. The comprehensive research methods employed for this study ranged from in-depth analysis of particular election results to analysis of constitutional and structural party variations. This extensive investigation enables the reader to draw conclusions about Polish intra-party politics and to understand the vetting processes that Polish politicians must undergo. The findings indicate that political parties tend to address wider selectorates; and that the rules of selection are transparent, democratic, and empirically predictable.

U.S. State Legislative Committee Assignments and Encouragement of Party Loyalty: An Exploratory Analysis

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 284-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Kanthak
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
Exploratory Analysis ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Party Loyalty ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Committee Assignments ◽  
State Legislative

Although political parties in U.S. legislatures cannot compel discipline with the threat of expulsion from the legislature, they can encourage greater party loyalty by strategically bestowing benefits upon favored members. This article explores the use of plum committee assignments to encourage legislators' loyalty to their parties. I outline a theory of how party leaders can use committee assignments strategically to encourage more loyal legislative behavior. This occurs when legislative rules meet two criteria: (1) parties and their leaders can determine who serves on committees and (2) committees have real authority over policy outcomes. I test the theory using data from five state legislatures that differ on the relevant set of legislative rules, finding more party loyalty shown by legislators who receive plum committee assignments when rules meet both criteria and no effect when they do not.

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