Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:18:35.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Ideology, Grandstanding, and Strategic Party Disloyalty in the British Parliament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2017

JONATHAN B. SLAPIN ,
JUSTIN H. KIRKLAND ,
JOSEPH A. LAZZARO ,
PATRICK A. LESLIE  and
TOM O’GRADY
JONATHAN B. SLAPIN*
Affiliation:
University of Essex
JUSTIN H. KIRKLAND*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
JOSEPH A. LAZZARO*
Affiliation:
University of Houston
PATRICK A. LESLIE*
Affiliation:
University of Essex
TOM O’GRADY*
Affiliation:
University College London
*
Jonathan B. Slapin is Professor of Government and Director of the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom ([email protected]).
Justin H. Kirkland is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Houston, 3551 Cullen Boulevard Room 447, Houston, TX 77204-3011, USA ([email protected]).
Joseph A. Lazzaro is Graduate Student, Department of Political Science, University of Houston, 3551 Cullen Boulevard Room 447, Houston, TX 77204-3011, USA ([email protected]).
Patrick A. Leslie is PhD Candidate, Department of Government, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, CO4 3SQ, United Kingdom ([email protected]).
Tom O’Grady is Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University College London, 29-31 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9QU, United Kingdom ([email protected]).
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Strong party discipline is a core feature of Westminster parliamentary systems. Parties typically compel members of Parliament (MPs) to support the party regardless of MPs’ individual preferences. Rebellion, however, does occur. Using an original dataset of MP votes and speeches in the British House of Commons from 1992 to 2015, coupled with new estimations of MPs’ ideological positions within their party, we find evidence that MPs use rebellion strategically to differentiate themselves from their party. The strategy that MPs employ is contingent upon an interaction of ideological extremity with party control of government. Extremists are loyal when their party is in the opposition, but these same extremists become more likely to rebel when their party controls government. Additionally, they emphasize their rebellion through speeches. Existing models of rebellion and party discipline do not account for government agenda control and do not explain these patterns.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 112 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 15 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Earlier versions of this article were presented at University College, Dublin, Hertie School of Governance, University of Essex, and the London School of Economics as well as several conferences. We thank the participants at these various events for their very helpful comments. In particular, we thank Shane Martin, Jack Blumenau, and Raphael Heuwieser for their careful reading of the article, and Raphael Heuwieser for sharing data on free votes. Lastly, we are very grateful to the reviewers and editors at the APSR for their helpful advice, which has substantially improved the article. Full replication code and data available is available on the APSR dataverse site.

References

REFERENCES

Bäck, Hanna, Debus, Marc, and Müller, Jochen. 2014. “Who Takes the Parliamentary Floor? The Role of Gender in Speech-Making in the Swedish Riksdag.” Political Research Quarterly 67 (3): 504–18.Google Scholar
Baughman, John. 2004. “Party, Constituency, and Representation: Votes on Abortion in the British House of Commons.” Public Choice 120 (1-2): 63–85.Google Scholar
Benedetto, Giacomo, and Hix, Simon. 2007. “The Rejected, the Ejected, and the Dejected: Explaining Government Rebels in the 2001–2005 British House of Commons.” Comparative Political Studies 40 (7): 755–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrington, Hugh, and Hague, Rod. 1998. “Europe, Thatcherism and Traditionalism: Opinion, Rebellion and the Maastricht Treaty in the Backbench Conservative Party, 1992–1994.” West European Politics 21 (1): 44–71.Google Scholar
Bertelli, Anthony M. and Dolan, Rachel M.. 2009. “The Demand and Supply of Parliamentary Policy Advocacy: Evidence from UK Health Policy, 1997–2005.” Government and Opposition 44 (3): 219–42.Google Scholar
Bowler, Shaun. 2010. “Private Members’ Bills in the UK Parliament: Is There an ‘Electoral Connection’?” The Journal of Legislative Studies 16 (4): 476–94.Google Scholar
Bräuninger, Thomas, Müller, Jochen, and Stecker, Christian. 2016. “Modeling Preferences Using Roll Call Votes in Parliamentary Systems.” Political Analysis 24 (2): 189–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cain, Bruce, Ferejohn, John, and Fiorina, Morris. 1987. The Personal Vote: Constituency Service and Electoral Independence. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, Rosie, Cowley, Philip, Vivyan, Nick, and Wagner, Markus. 2016. “Legislator Dissent as a Valence Signal.” British Journal of Political Science. 1–24. First published online 24 June 2016. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123416000223.Google Scholar
Carey, J. M. 2007. “Competing Principals, Political Institutions, and Party Unity in Legislative Voting.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (1): 92–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carey, John M. 2008. Legislative Voting and Accountability. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Carrubba, Clifford J., Gabel, Matthew, and Hug, Simon. 2008. “Legislative Voting Behavior, Seen and Unseen: A Theory of Roll-Call Vote Selection.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 33 (4): 543–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clasen, Jochen. 2005. Reforming European Welfare States: Germany and the United Kingdom Compared. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coman, Emanuel Emil. 2012. “Legislative Behvior in Romania: The Effect of the 2008 Romanian Electoral Reform.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 37 (2): 199–224.Google Scholar
Cowley, Philip. 2002. Revolts and Rebellions: Parliamentary Voting under Blair. London, UK: Politico’s Publishing.Google Scholar
Cowley, Philip, and Norton, Philip. 1999. “Rebels and Rebellions: Conservative MPs in the 1992 Parliament.” The British Journal of Politics & International Relations 1 (1): 84–105.Google Scholar
Cox, Gary W. 1987. The Efficienct Secret: The Cabinet and the Development of Political Parties in Victorian England. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 2005. Setting the Agenda: Responsible Party Government in the US House of Representatives. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crowe, Edward. 1986. “The Web of Authority: Party Loyalty and Social Control in the British House of Commons.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 11 (2): 161–85.Google Scholar
Dewan, Torun, and Spirling, Arthur. 2011. “Strategic Opposition and Government Cohesion in Westminster Democracies.” American Political Science Review 105 (2): 337–58.Google Scholar
Diermeier, Daniel, and Feddersen, Timothy J.. 1998. “Cohesion in Legislatures and the Vote of Confidence Procedure.” American Political Science Review 92 (3): 611–21.Google Scholar
Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York, NY: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Eggers, Andrew C. and Spirling, Arthur. 2016. “Party Cohesion in Westminster Systems: Inducements, Replacement and Discipline in the House of Commons, 1836–1910.” British Journal of Political Science 46 (3): 567–89.Google Scholar
Gaines, Brian J., and Garrett, Geoffrey. 1993. “The Calculus of Dissent: Party Discipline in the British Labour Government, 1974–1979.” Political Behavior 15 (2): 113–35.Google Scholar
Garner, Christopher, and Letki, Natalia. 2005. “Party Structure and Backbench Dissent in the Canadian and British Parliaments.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 38 (2): 463–82.Google Scholar
Heller, William B. 2001. “Making Policy Stick: Why the Government Gets What It Wants in Multiparty Parliaments.” American Journal of Political Science 45 (4): 780–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heppell, Timothy. 2013. “Cameron and Liberal Conservatism: Attitudes within the Parliamentary Conservative Party and Conservative Ministers.” British Journal of Politics & International Relations 15 (3): 340–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herzog, Alexander, and Benoit, Kenneth. 2015. “The Most Unkindest Cuts: Speaker Selection and Expressed Government Dissent during Economic Crisis.” Journal of Politics 77 (4): 1157–75.Google Scholar
Hix, Simon. 2004. “Electoral Institutions and Legislative Behavior — Explaining Voting Defection in the European Parliament.” World Politics 56 (2): 194–223.Google Scholar
Hix, Simon, and Noury, Abdul. 2015. “Government-Opposition or Left-Right? The Institutional Determinants of Voting in Legislatures.” Political Science Research and Methods 4 (2): 249–73.Google Scholar
Huber, John. 1996. “The Vote of Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies.” American Political Science Review 90 (2): 269–82.Google Scholar
Hug, Simon. 2010. “Selection Effects in Roll Call Votes.” British Journal of Political Science 40 (1): 225–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Ron, Cowley, Philip, Pattie, Charles, and Stuart, Mark. 2002. “Voting in the House or Wooing the Voters at Home: Labour MPs and the 2001 General Election Campaign.” Journal of Legislative Studies 8 (2): 9–22.Google Scholar
Kam, Christopher. 2001. “Do Ideological Preferences Explain Parliamentary Behaviour? Evidence from Great Britain and Canada.” Journal of Legislative Studies 7 (4): 89–126.Google Scholar
Kam, Christopher J. 2009. Party Discipline and Parliamentary Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kam, Christopher, Bianco, William T, Sened, Itai, and Smyth, Regina. 2010. “Ministerial Selection and Intraparty Organization in the Contemporary British Parliament.” American Political Science Review 104 (2): 289–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kellermann, Michael. 2012. “Estimating Ideal Points in the British House of Commons.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (3): 757–77.Google Scholar
Lauderdale, Benjamin E., and Herzog, Alexander. 2016. “Measuring Political Positions from Legislative Speech.” Political Analysis 24 (3): 374–94.Google Scholar
Laver, Michael, Benoit, Kenneth, and Garry, John. 2003. “Extracting Policy Positions from Political Texts Using Words as Data.” American Political Science Review 97 (2): 311–31.Google Scholar
Longley, Neil. 1998. “Legislative Systems with Absolute Party Discipline: Implications for the Agency Theory Approach to the Constituent-Legislator Link.” Public Choice 97 (1-2): 121–41.Google Scholar
Lynch, Philip, and Whitaker, Richard. 2013. “Where There is Discord, Can They Bring Harmony? Managing Intra-party Dissent on European Integration in the Conservative Party.” British Journal of Politics & International Relations 15 (3): 317–39.Google Scholar
Pattie, Charles, Fieldhouse, Edward, and Johnston, Ronald J.. 1994. “The Price of Conscience: the Electoral Correlates and Consequences of Free Votes and Rebellions in the British House of Commons, 1987–92.” British Journal of Political Science 24 (3): 359–80.Google Scholar
Piper, J. Richard. 1991. “British Backbench Rebellion and Government Appointments, 1945-87.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 16 (2): 219–38.Google Scholar
Proksch, Sven-Oliver, and Slapin, Jonathan B.. 2010. “Position taking in European Parliament speeches.” British Journal of Political Science 40 (3): 587–611.Google Scholar
Proksch, Sven-Oliver, and Slapin, Jonathan B.. 2012. “The Institutional Foundations of Legislative Speech.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (3): 520–37.Google Scholar
Proksch, Sven-Oliver, and Slapin, Jonathan B.. 2015. The Politics of Parliamentary Debate: Parties, Rebels and Representation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rhodes, Martin. 2000. “Desperately Seeking a Solution: Social Democracy, Thatcherism and the ‘Third Way’ in British Welfare.” West European Politics 23 (2): 161–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosas, Guillermo, Shomer, Yael, and Haptonstahl, Stephen R.. 2015. “No News Is News: Nonignorable Nonresponse in Roll-Call Data Analysis.” American Journal of Political Science 59 (2): 511–28.Google Scholar
Schaufele, Brandon. 2014. “Dissent in Parliament as Reputation Building.” Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2317466 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2317466 Google Scholar
Schonhardt-Bailey, Cheryl. 2003. “Ideology, Party and Interests in the British Parliament of 1841–47.” British Journal of Political Science 33 (4): 581–605.Google Scholar
Sieberer, Ulrich. 2006. “Party Unity in Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Analysis.” Journal of Legislative Studies 12 (2): 150–78.Google Scholar
Slapin, Jonathan B., and Proksch, Sven-Oliver. 2008. “A Scaling Model for Estimating Time-series Party Positions from Texts.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (3): 705–22.Google Scholar
Spirling, Arthur, and McLean, Iain. 2006. “The Rights and Wrongs of Roll Calls.” Government and Opposition 41 (4): 581–8.Google Scholar
Spirling, Arthur, and Quinn, Kevin. 2010. “Identifying Intraparty Voting Blocs in the UK House of Commons.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 105 (490): 447–57.Google Scholar
Tavits, Margit. 2009. “The Making of Mavericks Local Loyalties and Party Defection.” Comparative Political Studies 42 (6): 793–815.Google Scholar
Tsebelis, George. 2002. Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press/Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Vivyan, Nick, and Wagner, Markus. 2012. “Do Voters Reward Rebellion? The Electoral Accountability of MPs in Britain.” European Journal of Political Research 51 (2): 235–64.Google Scholar
Vivyan, Nick, and Wagner, Markus. 2015. “What do Voters Want from Their Local MP?” Political Quarterly 86 (1): 33–40.Google Scholar
Yong, Ben. 2012. The Coalition in Parliament. In The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works, eds. Yong, Ben and Hazell, Robert. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 92–115.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Slapin et al. Dataset

Dataset

http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/10HLY3
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Slapin et al supplementary material

Slapin et al supplementary material 1

Download Slapin et al supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 258.2 KB
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.