Second-Class Representatives or Work Horses? Committee Assignments and Electoral Incentives in the Scottish Parliament

Battle, Martin

doi:10.1093/pa/gsq055

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Scholarship on the Scottish Parliament has examined behavioural differences between constituency and list MSPs. Battle (2010) found that constituency MSPs prioritise constituency work, and that list MSPs are more likely to do committee work. Bradbury and Mitchell (2007) surveyed MSPs to determine which aspects of their jobs they found the most important and how they allocate their time.…”

Section: The Personal Vote At Westminster and Holyroodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back from Holyrood: How mixed-member proportional representation and ballot structure shape the personal vote

Parker

Richter

2018

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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Research on mixed-member legislatures demonstrates that members face different incentive structures when cultivating a personal vote. In this article, we examine how Scotland’s adoption of a mixed-member proportional system (MMP) and a change in ballot structure affect the legislative activities undertaken and emphasised by Members of Scottish Parliament (MSPs). Utilising a range of measures of legislative behaviour, we find that MSPs representing constituencies spend less time legislating and more time engaged in constituent service work. Regional members, conversely, lodge more parliamentary motions when not listed on the ballot and sponsor more members’ bills than constituency-based colleagues when on the ballot. We conclude that electoral structures directly affect the representational styles MSPs adopt, while calling for conceptual reconsideration of the personal vote.

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Section: The Personal Vote At Westminster and Holyroodmentioning

confidence: 99%

Back from Holyrood: How mixed-member proportional representation and ballot structure shape the personal vote

Parker

Richter

2018

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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“…Another general feature is the different method of election. Earlier research finds that parliamentarians who are elected via the party list do more committee work than those elected via the single member district (Battle, 2011). This usually happens because the legislators elected in single member districts engage more in constituency work, which involves a trade-off with their activity in committees.…”

Section: Organisational Constraints and Personal Motivationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Party Whips and Expertise: Explaining Committee Switching in the Scottish Parliament

Cairney

Gherghina

2021

Parliamentary Affairs

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Committee work lies at the core of parliamentary activities in established representative democracies. While extensive literature refers to committee activity, there is limited research on committee switching. This article seeks to address this gap and aims to explain what drives Members of the Scottish Parliament to switch committees. It focuses on the fifth session (since 2016) in which committee switching is frequent. The qualitative analysis uses semi-structured interviews conducted with committee switchers in January–February 2020. Findings illustrate that the main drivers for committee switching are a combination of organisational constraints and individual motivations. Among these, key determinants are party control and the legislators’ expertise and interest in the subject.

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“…The ability to run as a dual candidate may, in turn, have implications for politicians' electoral campaigns and legislative activities. Whereas existing research into the latter is well-developed (e.g., Battle 2011;Bradbury and Mitchell 2007;Ferrara 2004;Ohmura 2014;Thames 2005), very few studies have focused on the preelection period and explored how candidacy type influences candidates' campaign behaviour in mixed member systems. Those that do, explore the effects associated with the lowest level of candidacy and do not distinguish dual candidates from the rest (Chiru 2015) or undertake somewhat limited bivariate analyses without checking whether the effects of candidacy type remain salient when controlling for other explanatory characteristics (Rich 2013;Wüst et al 2006).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The best of both worlds? Evaluating the campaign behaviour of dual candidates

Trumm

2018

Electoral Studies

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The conventional wisdom of electoral politics suggests that parliamentary candidates who run for office under candidate-centred mechanisms tend to conduct more intense and personalised campaigns than those who run under party-centred ones. But what about the campaigns put in place by candidates who simultaneously run under both systems? Using original data from the 2016 Welsh Candidate Study, this article shows that dual candidates' campaign behaviour is distinct from that of their constituency and regional list counterparts. Their campaign effort tends to be more intense as well as complex than that put in place by candidates who stand in one tier only. In addition, the findings show that dual candidates' campaign messages tend to be more personalised than those of regional list candidates, but less personalised than those of constituency candidates. These results indicate that the electoral campaigns put in place by dual candidates combine elements of campaigning under candidate-centred and party-centred electoral systems Keywords Campaigns; electoral institutions; dual candidacy; voter mobilisation; devolution 1 Notable exceptions include Taiwan, Thailand, and Ukraine. 2 The 2016 devolved election in Wales offers a useful case for studying the campaign effects of candidacy type. First, all three candidacy typesconstituency, regional list, and dualwere meaningfully represented in the full population of candidates. There was a total of 457 candidates, with 208 standing as regional list candidates, 153 as constituency candidates, and 96 as dual candidates. Even the least popular category comprised of over 20% of all candidates. This allows for a meaningful analysis as no category of candidates is effectively a token category. Second, the election in question is one of the most recent parliamentary elections held in mixed member systems for which a candidate study has been conducted. This allows for an up-to-date analysis which findings reflect as current campaign dynamics as possible. Finally, while devolved elections in Britain still have low turnout levels, their 'second order' nature is significantly reduced by the strength of these administrations as they have primary legislative power over a range of policy areas and the strength of the sub-state identities in question (Jeffery and Hough 2009).

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Second-Class Representatives or Work Horses? Committee Assignments and Electoral Incentives in the Scottish Parliament

Cited by 12 publications

References 0 publications

Back from Holyrood: How mixed-member proportional representation and ballot structure shape the personal vote

Back from Holyrood: How mixed-member proportional representation and ballot structure shape the personal vote

Party Whips and Expertise: Explaining Committee Switching in the Scottish Parliament

The best of both worlds? Evaluating the campaign behaviour of dual candidates

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