Party discipline and parliamentary government / edited by Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell, and Richard S. Katz.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bowler, Shaun, 1958-

Farrell, David M., 1960-

Katz, Richard S.

European Consortium for Political Research.

Series:

Parliaments and legislatures series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Party discipline--Europe, Western.

Party discipline.

Political parties--Europe, Western.

Political parties.

Legislative bodies.

Western Europe.

Legislative bodies--Europe, Western.

Physical Description:

ix, 304 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, [1999]

Summary:

Parliamentary government is generally taken to mean party government. Party cohesion and discipline are usually seen as central to the maintenance of parliamentary democracy. This overlap, between disciplined parties on the one hand and parliamentary government on the other, is often seen as so complete and so automatic that the question of party discipline is pushed to the sidelines and rarely studied. Yet, if individual legislators remain an undisciplined mob, parliaments could easily become unruly and anarchical.

How and why party discipline arises and is maintained are thus central questions of importance in legislative, and especially parliamentary, studies. Our knowledge of these topics, however, suffers from substantial gaps, especially with regard to the practice of party cohesion outside the relatively familiar Anglo-American setting.

This book marks a step toward filling some of those gaps. The collection of essays presented here provides theoretical background and comparative studies of legislatures in a wide range of settings. Well-developed democracies such as Britain, Finland, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland are covered, as are the more recent democracies of Spain and Hungary, and the unique case of the transnational European Parliament.

Contents:

Part I Theories and Definitions

1 Party Cohesion, Party Discipline, and Parliaments / Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell, Richard S. Katz 3

2 How Political Parties Emerged from the Primeval Slime: Party Cohesion, Party Discipline, and the Formation of Governments / Michael Laver, Kenneth A. Shepsle 23

Part II The "Westminster Model"

3 Discipline in the British Conservative Party: The Attitudes of Party Activists toward the Role of Their Members of Parliament / Paul F. Whiteley, Patrick Seyd 53

4 Backbenchers with Attitude: A Seismic Study of the Conservative Party and Dissent on Europe / David Baker, Andrew Gamble, Steve Ludlam, David Seawright 72

Part III Established Continental European Systems

5 Cohesion of Party Groups and Interparty Conflict in the Swiss Parliament: Roll Call Voting in the National Council / Prisca Lanfranchi, Ruth Luthi 99

6 Electoral Systems, Parliamentary Committees, and Party Discipline: The Norwegian Storting in a Comparative Perspective / Bjorn Erik Rasch 121

7 Parliamentary Party Discipline in Spain / Manuel Sanchez de Dios 141

Part IV Newly Emerging Systems

8 The Parliamentarization of the East Central European Parties: Party Discipline in the Hungarian Parliament, 1990-1996 / Attila Agh 167

9 The Challenge of Diversity: Party Cohesion in the European Parliament / Tapio Raunio 189

10 Parties and Party Discipline within the European Parliament: A Norms-Based Approach / Shaun Bowler, David M. Farrell 208

Part V Parliamentary Discipline and Coalition Governments

11 The Costs of Coalition: A Five-Nation Comparison / Carol Mershon 227

12 Coalition Discipline, Enforcement Mechanisms, and Intraparty Politics / Paul Mitchell 269.

Notes:

Based on papers presented at a workshop which was part of the European Consortium for Political Research's joint sessions in France in 1995.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0814207960

0814250009

OCLC:

39464847