The Ideological Cohesion of Parliamentary Parties and Its Implications for Decision-Making in Modern Democracies
Introduction
Political scientists often treat parties as “unitary actors”. In most cases, however, parties represent divergent interests of various members in different organisational units. This project aims at measuring the degree of intra-party cohesion in political parties in different countries, and at exploring the causes and consequences of intra-party cohesion. We explain varying levels of intra-party cohesion by for example taking the country’s electoral system and parties’ internal organisational structure into account. Moreover, the project explores some of the manifold implications that intra-party cohesion, or its opposite, intra-party heterogeneity, is likely to have on political decision-making. It is argued that intra-party heterogeneity has consequences for the power and behaviour of political actors, for example on government formation and the allocation of ministerial offices. Furthermore, intra-party cohesion should have wider consequences on political outputs or laws, with repercussions on outcomes such as reform processes. In this project, we analyse data drawn from nine West European countries (Aus tria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). The main source of information for the project is the parliamentary speeches made by members of Parliament and cabinet members during a longer time period, and these speeches are analysed by applying computerised methods of content analysis. The project is funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and the project period is 2012-2015.
Department Researchers in this Project
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Koordinator/Projektledare
Hanna
Bäck
(Associate Professor) |
External Project Members
Professor Wolfgang C. Müller (international collaborator, University of Vienna), Dr. Marc Debus (international collaborator, University of Mannheim).
