IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ulb/ulbcvp/2013-229807.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

At the root of parliamentary party cohesion: the role of intraparty heterogeneity and party ideology

Author

Listed:
  • Caroline Close
  • Lidia Nunez Lopez

Abstract

Party cohesion is a central issue in legislative studies. The way cohesion is reached in parliamentary parties has therefore attracted a lot of attention. A frequent assumption states that party cohesion stems from party agreement measured as the homogeneity of preferences among MPs. This paper argues that the two concepts –agreement and homogeneity– cover different realities, and shows that the relationship between them is not as straightforward as often suggested. The paper contends that party ideology works as a mediator between the heterogeneity of preferences and intra-party disagreement. The analysis is based on attitudinal data collected among 840 MPs from 15 European national assemblies and is computed at the aggregate –party– level. The results bring new perspectives on the relationship between ideology, homogeneity of preferences and agreement within parliamentary parties.

Suggested Citation

  • Caroline Close & Lidia Nunez Lopez, 2016. "At the root of parliamentary party cohesion: the role of intraparty heterogeneity and party ideology," CEVIPOL Working Papers 1/2016, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbcvp:2013/229807
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/229807/3/cahier_cevipol_brussels_wp_2016_01.pdf
    File Function: Œuvre complète ou partie de l'œuvre
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Krehbiel, Keith, 1993. "Where's the Party?," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 235-266, April.
    2. Bernt Hagtvet, 1994. "Right-Wing Extremism in Europe," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 31(3), pages 241-246, August.
    3. John M. Carey, 2007. "Competing Principals, Political Institutions, and Party Unity in Legislative Voting," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 92-107, January.
    4. Cox, Gary W. & Rosenbluth, Frances, 1996. "Factional Competition for the Party Endorsement: The Case of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 259-269, April.
    5. Cees Van Der Eijk, 2001. "Measuring Agreement in Ordered Rating Scales," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 325-341, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kyriaki Nanou & Galina Zapryanova & Fanni Toth, 2017. "An ever-closer union? Measuring the expansion and ideological content of European Union policy-making through an expert survey," European Union Politics, , vol. 18(4), pages 678-693, December.
    2. Carol Mershon, 2020. "Challenging the wisdom on preferential proportional representation," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(1), pages 168-182, January.
    3. Nuria Font & Ixchel Pérez‐Durán, 2023. "Legislative Transparency in the European Parliament: Disclosing Legislators' Meetings with Interest Groups," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 379-396, March.
    4. Christine Benesch & Monika Bütler & Katharina Hofer, 2019. "Who Benefits from More Transparency in Parliamentary Voting?," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 17(01), pages 36-41, May.
    5. David Stadelmann & Marco Portmann & Reiner Eichenberger, 2012. "Do Female Representatives Adhere More Closely to Citizens’ Preferences Than Male Representatives?," CREMA Working Paper Series 2012-02, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    6. Cho, Seok-ju & Duggan, John, 2009. "Bargaining foundations of the median voter theorem," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 144(2), pages 851-868, March.
    7. Lindgren, Charlie, 2021. "Discontinuities: What is the value of having the lowest price or highest consumer rating on a price comparison website?," HFI Working Papers 19, Institute of Retail Economics (Handelns Forskningsinstitut).
    8. Fang-Yi Chiou & Lawrence S. Rothenberg, 2016. "Presidential unilateral action: partisan influence and presidential power," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(1), pages 145-171, April.
    9. Paula Clerici, 2021. "Legislative Territorialization: The Impact of a Decentralized Party System on Individual Legislative Behavior in Argentina," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 51(1), pages 104-130.
    10. Joep Burger & Jacqueline Beuningen, 2020. "Measuring well-being dispersion on discrete rating scales," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 749-773, June.
    11. Krehbiel, Keith & Meirowitz, Adam & Woon, Jonathan, 2004. "Testing Theories of Lawmaking," Research Papers 1860, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    12. Ryan J. Vander Wielen, 2023. "Party leaders as welfare-maximizing coalition builders in the pursuit of party-related public goods," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 194(1), pages 75-99, January.
    13. Keith Poole, 2007. "Changing minds? Not in Congress!," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 435-451, June.
    14. Catherine E. de Vries, 2007. "Sleeping Giant: Fact or Fairytale?," European Union Politics, , vol. 8(3), pages 363-385, September.
    15. Zhikuo Liu & Tao Qian & Qi Zhang, 2021. "Power Signaling and Intergovernmental Transfers: Evidence from the Distribution of Center‐to‐Province Earmarked Transfers in China," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(2), pages 683-705, March.
    16. Olga Gorelkina & Ioanna Grypari & Erin Hengel, 2023. "The theory of straight ticket voting," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 60(3), pages 365-381, April.
    17. Kroh, Martin, 2007. "Measuring Left-Right Political Orientation: The Choice of Response Format," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 71(2), pages 204-220.
    18. Royce Carroll & Monika Nalepa, 2020. "The personal vote and party cohesion: Modeling the effects of electoral rules on intraparty politics," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 32(1), pages 36-69, January.
    19. Born, Andreas & Janssen, Aljoscha, 2020. "Does a District-Vote Matter for the Behavior of Politicians? A Textual Analysis of Parliamentary Speeches," Working Paper Series 1320, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    20. Fiachra Kennedy & Pat Lyons & Peter Fitzgerald, 2006. "Pragmatists, Ideologues and the General Law of Curvilinear Disparity: The Case of the Irish Labour Party," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 54(4), pages 786-805, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbcvp:2013/229807. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Benoit Pauwels (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://difusion.ulb.ac.be .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.