Parliamentary party loyalty and party family: The missing link?. (March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Close, Caroline
• Is Part Of: Party politics. Volume 24:Number 2(2018:Mar.)
• Page Start: 209
• Page End: 219
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Subjects: intra-party politics -- legislative cohesion -- party ideology -- party family -- party organization; Political parties -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; 324.2
• DOI: 10.1177/1354068816655562
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-0688

Abstract

Party cohesion is a crucial aspect of parliamentary systems, and it varies across time, parties and systems. To explain these variations, scholars have set forth the influence of macro-level and individual-level factors. Although party-level factors have also been considered, the role of party family has been overlooked. This research seeks to fill this gap. To this end, I focus on one dimension of cohesion: the extent to which legislators have internalized the norm of party loyalty. The concept of party family permits to investigate the effect of party origin and party ideology beyond a policy-based approach and left-right dimension. Using attitudinal data of 829 parliamentarians elected in 14 European national assemblies, the analysis uncovers a party family effect, particularly in the green and radical right parties. The results suggest that a greater attention should be directed towards party family as a determinant factor of legislative cohesion.