Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 406-424 |
| Number of pages | 19 |
| Journal | Parliamentary Affairs |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| Early online date | 22 Feb 2018 |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Abstract
This article points to vote explanations in the German Bundestag as means to broaden our empirical conception of parliamentary party unity. Vote explanations provide opportunities to take positions on floor votes, independent of vote choices. They thus allow to tap into the level of preference unity compared to the level of behavioural unity. Our analysis shows that German legislators frequently use vote explanations to take individual positions that sometimes involve outright criticism on their parties' stances. Furthermore, it shows that related motivations differ from those that govern behaviour in floor votes. Specifically, electoral incentives to seek personal votes matter more for vote explanations while voting behaviour on the floor is to greater degrees affected by office seeking concerns. The article draws from newly collected data on the 17th Bundestag that includes 274 roll-call votes and also the results of a manual coding of all 1005 unique vote explanations that were tabled in this term.
Keywords
- Germany, Parliaments, Party Unity, Roll Calls, Vote Explanations
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Social Sciences(all)
- Law
- Social Sciences(all)
- Sociology and Political Science
Cite this
- Standard
- Harvard
- Apa
- Vancouver
- BibTeX
- RIS
In: Parliamentary Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 2, 04.2019, p. 406-424.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Two faces of party unity
T2 - Roll-call behavior and vote explanations in the German Bundestag
AU - Zittel, Thomas
AU - Nyhuis, Dominic
N1 - Funding information: The research to this article is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) through ZI 608/7-1 and HE 5813/2-1.
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - This article points to vote explanations in the German Bundestag as means to broaden our empirical conception of parliamentary party unity. Vote explanations provide opportunities to take positions on floor votes, independent of vote choices. They thus allow to tap into the level of preference unity compared to the level of behavioural unity. Our analysis shows that German legislators frequently use vote explanations to take individual positions that sometimes involve outright criticism on their parties' stances. Furthermore, it shows that related motivations differ from those that govern behaviour in floor votes. Specifically, electoral incentives to seek personal votes matter more for vote explanations while voting behaviour on the floor is to greater degrees affected by office seeking concerns. The article draws from newly collected data on the 17th Bundestag that includes 274 roll-call votes and also the results of a manual coding of all 1005 unique vote explanations that were tabled in this term.
AB - This article points to vote explanations in the German Bundestag as means to broaden our empirical conception of parliamentary party unity. Vote explanations provide opportunities to take positions on floor votes, independent of vote choices. They thus allow to tap into the level of preference unity compared to the level of behavioural unity. Our analysis shows that German legislators frequently use vote explanations to take individual positions that sometimes involve outright criticism on their parties' stances. Furthermore, it shows that related motivations differ from those that govern behaviour in floor votes. Specifically, electoral incentives to seek personal votes matter more for vote explanations while voting behaviour on the floor is to greater degrees affected by office seeking concerns. The article draws from newly collected data on the 17th Bundestag that includes 274 roll-call votes and also the results of a manual coding of all 1005 unique vote explanations that were tabled in this term.
KW - Germany
KW - Parliaments
KW - Party Unity
KW - Roll Calls
KW - Vote Explanations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058145598&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/pa/gsx076
DO - 10.1093/pa/gsx076
M3 - Article
VL - 72
SP - 406
EP - 424
JO - Parliamentary Affairs
JF - Parliamentary Affairs
SN - 0031-2290
IS - 2
ER -