Unpacking the politics of legislative debates

Fernandes, Jorge M.; Debus, Marc; Bäck, Hanna

doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12454

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…On a methodological note, we show that the party press releases seem to reflect overall changes in party issue platforms, matching what we know from other theoretical accounts and empirical examinations (Van der Velden et al, 2018). This supports the results by Grimmer (2010) who demonstrates that press releases capture the same and additional aspects of political information to a high degree as derived from, for instance, parliamentary speeches (Fernandes et al, 2021). As such, party press releases are likely an adequate and highly detailed source of information on party policy positions as has been shown for parties in other contexts (Grimmer, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Using party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to analyse developments and determinants of parties’ issue prevalence: Evidence for the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Germany’

Debus

Florczak

2022

Research & Politics

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We make use of party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to study issue dynamics and its determinants of a relatively young right-wing populist party. By applying structural topic models, we analyse 2262 press releases of the ‘Alternative for Germany’ (AfD) from 2013 until 2019. The findings reveal, first, that European integration, EU economic policy, and migration are prevalent topics, but that a change occurs over time so that the focus on economic policy decreases as the focus on migration policy increases. In addition, we show – by using novel data that provides information on the number of daily hits of entries in the German Wikipedia – that the AfD took the attention into account that people attached to European integration and migration issues when preparing their press releases. The results support the findings of existing studies and imply that the content of press releases can be used for measuring changes in the policy profile of parties during a legislative period when normally no manifestos are published, and that the interest in Wikipedia articles can serve as a proxy for the dynamics of issue salience among the population. Furthermore, the findings indicate that a combination of these two data sources is a fruitful approach for studying the determinants of short-term issue dynamics.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Using party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to analyse developments and determinants of parties’ issue prevalence: Evidence for the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Germany’

Debus

Florczak

2022

Research & Politics

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“…The approach taken in this study has allowed us to uncover some patterns of attack behaviour that were not tested before. For example, the results align the notion from the literature on the politics of legislative debate that parliamentary speeches differ across different systems (Fernandes et al., 2021). In both Belgium and Croatia (proportional elections), there are low levels of intra‐party attacks, whereas in the United Kingdom (majoritarian elections) parties allow more intra‐party conflict.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The scrapped and raw data had every speech contribution as an observation (N = 23,991; see Supporting Information Appendix A) including a transcript of what each person said during a particular QT without any interruption (Belgium N = 6,634; Croatian N = 9,395; UK N = 7,962). These included both formal (questions, answers, replies, points of order) and informal (interruptions, shouting in the chamber, speakers’ interventions) speech contributions which is an advantage as most studies tend to focus only on the formal speech contributions (see Fernandes et al., 2021). 4 Protocol speeches when the speaker gives the floor (only transcribed in Croatian debates) and when PMs in the United Kingdom are asked to list their engagements at the start of every PMQ (see Bevan & John, 2016) were dropped (final Croatian N = 5,087/UK N = 7,731).…”

Section: Cases Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parties’ attack behaviour in parliaments: Who attacks whom and when

Poljak

2022

European J Political Res

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Various research have been directed towards investigating the behaviour of political parties engaging in attacks. However, this topic has predominantly been studied in campaigning venues while focusing only on the attacker (parties that are attacking). This study contributes to the existing literature by (i) studying attack behaviour in the parliamentary venue, and (ii) analysing the interactions between both the attacker and the target. To this end, this paper uses longitudinal data on attacks during question time sessions in the parliaments (2010 to 2020) of Belgium, Croatia and the United Kingdom. More specifically, I investigate the conditions that make parties engage in mutual attacks. These conditions can be characterised along three dimensions: time (proximity to elections), status (government vs. opposition), and ideology (close vs. distant). The results confirm the overarching argument that: (i) more attacks in parliaments happen closer to election day; (ii) opposing parties are more likely to attack the government rather than vice‐versa; (iii) governing parties equally attack the opposition and themselves; and finally, (iv) the larger the ideological distance between parties, the more likely attacks happen (with mainstream parties engaging equally in attack behaviour compared to radical parties). As such, these findings contribute to our understanding of attack strategies between parties in regular day‐to‐day politics.

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“…Lastly, while it is expected that there is genderconforming behaviour in parliamentary venues, there may be differences across different systems (Hargrave & Langengen, 2021, p. 583). This is why I borrow the dis-tinction from the emerging literature on the politics of legislative debate regarding candidate vs party-centred systems (Fernandes et al, 2021). If citizens elect candidates, there is more importance on individual politicians and their own reputations during parliamentary debates (Proksch & Slapin, 2012).…”

Section: Attack Politics In Parliaments: Gender Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In turn, all politicians avoid the cost of targeting women, perceived as communal, by using less incivility. Lastly, I integrate this framework with the literature on the politics of legislative debate (Fernandes et al, 2021), arguing that adherence to stereotypical gender roles is stronger in parliaments oriented at candidates rather than parties.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Gender in Parliamentary Attacks and Incivility

Poljak

2022

PaG

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It has been well established that politicians attack their competitors to reach their political goals. As such, there is a considerable amount of literature on their attack behaviour. However, this literature almost exclusively investigates attack behaviour during campaigns, and so far, few studies have addressed the nature of attacks during more routine times in parliaments. This article aims to fill this gap by examining in-parliament attack behaviour and, more specifically, the gender characteristics of attacks. It is theorised that women are less likely to attack and be attacked than men due to the stereotypical gender roles. However, it is anticipated that this compliance to stereotypes diminishes as proximity to elections increases, resulting in women engaging in attacks as much as men. To limit the cost of their divergence, attacks employed by and toward women are expected to be more civil. Lastly, this study argues that adherence to gender stereotypes is stronger in countries with candidate-centred parliamentary systems than party-centred ones. This study finds support for the theoretical framework using longitudinal data on individual attacks in the parliaments of Belgium, Croatia, and the UK. Results confirm that politicians adhere to gender stereotypical roles in parliaments, with women attacking and being targeted less than men, and when women do attack or are targeted, less incivility is employed. Proximity to elections makes both women and men more hostile, but women lower the cost of their increasing attack behaviour by using less incivility, unlike men who increasingly opt for uncivil attacks closer to elections. Additionally, these findings strongly apply in the candidate-centred system of the UK, whereas in the party-centred system of Belgium and Croatia, hardly any support for the theory can be found.

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Unpacking the politics of legislative debates

Cited by 24 publications

References 58 publications

Using party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to analyse developments and determinants of parties’ issue prevalence: Evidence for the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Germany’

Using party press releases and Wikipedia page view data to analyse developments and determinants of parties’ issue prevalence: Evidence for the right-wing populist ‘Alternative for Germany’

Parties’ attack behaviour in parliaments: Who attacks whom and when

The Role of Gender in Parliamentary Attacks and Incivility

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