Party discipline and parliamentary politics
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Party discipline and parliamentary politics
Cambridge University Press, 2011, c2009
1st pbk. ed
- : pbk
Available at 2 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Originally published in 2009
Bibliography: p. 248-260
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
One of the chief tasks facing political leaders is to build and maintain unity within their parties. This text examines the relationship between party leaders and Members of Parliament in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, showing how the two sides interact and sometimes clash. Christopher J. Kam demonstrates how incentives for MPs to dissent from their parties have been amplified by a process of partisan dealignment that has created electorates of non-partisan voters who reward shows of political independence. Party leaders therefore rely on a mixture of strategies to offset these electoral pressures, from offering MPs advancement to threatening discipline, and ultimately relying on a long-run process of socialization to temper their MPs' dissension. Kam reveals the underlying structure of party unity in modern Westminster parliamentary politics, and drives home the point that social norms and socialization reinforce rather than displace appeals to MPs' self-interest.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. A model of intra-party politics
- 3. Patterns of backbench dissent in four Westminster parliamentary systems, 1945-2005
- 4. Policy preferences and backbench dissent in Great Britain and Canada
- 5. Dissent, constituency service, and the personal vote in Great Britain and New Zealand
- 6. The cost of dissent to the party
- 7. Demotion and dissent in the Canadian Liberal Party, 1991-7
- 8. Discipline and dissent in the Australian Coalition, 1996-8
- 9. Career trajectories, socialization, and backbench dissent in the British House of Commons
- 10. Conclusion
- Appendix 1. Comparative statics and proofs
- Appendix 2. Content and construction of ideological scales
- Appendix 3. Sampling and coding of media dissent and discipline
- Appendix 4. Demotion and the parliamentary careers of Canadian MPs
- References
- Index.
by "Nielsen BookData"