Motivating Parliament : An Analysis of Party Policy Change and Legislative Behavior in France, 1981-2007
Studies of legislatures often link electoral conditions and party preferences to policy outcomes. These studies link electoral strategies and measures of party preferences to legislator behavior or government expenditures, such as support for welfare spending. In this paper, I further consider the relationship between party preferences and change to legislative behavior by developing and testing a theory focused on the motivations for party policy change and the influence of these motivations for legislative behavior. Assuming that parties are concerned with maintaining the image of accountability with groups important for the party to win elections and function in government, I argue that governing parties foster the image of accountability to voters and intra-party groups through the types of procedures they invoke during the legislative process by either emphasizing or constraining information about the legislative process.Governing parties seeking to emphasize their legislative priorities to voters utilize procedures that highlight the legislative process while governing parties emphasizing their legislative initiatives to intra-party groups utilize procedures that limit information about the process. Using an instrumental variables approach to estimate the motivations or beneficiaries of party policy change across 11 issues areas from the Comparative Manifestos Project, I develop an initial test of the theory in France by connecting the motives for party policy change to the selection of legislative procedures on that issue in the French Assemblee Nationale from 1981 through 2007. Results from the analysis suggest that the choice of legislative procedures not only shape the content and legislative support for policies, but also cue voters and party members on the government.s focus
Year of publication: |
2010
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Authors: | Greene, Zachary |
Publisher: |
[2010]: [S.l.] : SSRN |
Subject: | Frankreich | France | Politische Partei | Political party | Parlament | Parliament | Gesetzgebung | Legislation |
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