Within‐party Allocation of Committee Seats: Evidence from Danish Local Elections

Abstract

This article examines two traditional and four new explanations of committee composition. Using survey data on 541 Danish local politicians' pre-election committee seat preferences and their actual post-election committee seats, it is found that politicians are more likely to have their committee seat preferences fulfilled the less their preferences for the committees' policy domains differ from those of their fellow party members and the more specialised they are within the jurisdiction area of their preferred committee. Thus, the ex ante control of committee members sometimes observed in the American context is also relevant in the very different institutional setting of Danish local government. Moreover, a number of other explanations are found to be of equal relevance. In particular, individual-level popular support is important to politicians' committee seat preference fulfilment and seats are distributed among party members in order to assure that everybody, at least to some extent, obtains a post that they find attractive. The findings thus suggest that ex ante control of committee members is but one of many concerns of parties. Accordingly, scholars should broaden their attention to other aspects of committee seat allocation, such as fair share norms and the popular support of politicians.

Negative feedback, political attention, and public policy

“…On the other hand, being a member of a standing committee has a positive effect on the politicians’ spending preference for the area relevant to the standing committee. Thus, for the three areas that could be linked to a standing committee, we find a clear positive relationship with committee membership, which to some extent may reflect self‐selection based on preferences (Baekgaard ).…”

Dutiful citizen or a pragmatic professional? Voluntary retirement of Icelandic local councillors

“…Findings from a study on Danish councillors-who also receive low remuneration for their council work-showed that they are also motivated by their institutional positions, and that holding these positions made them less likely to retire voluntarily (Hjelmar et al 2010, 414). Other findings have shown that being assigned a committee or leadership position is an important factor when it comes to the possibility of re-election (Baekgaard 2014;Martin 2014).…”

Explaining Gender Gaps in Legislative Committees

“…They provide deliberative and scrutiny functions, and may revise or even initiate legislation. Allocation of legislators to these committees is of central importance to the distribution of power within a legislature, as some committees are considered more powerful, prestigious, and influential than others (Baekgaard 2014;Heath et al 2005;Munger 1988). Sitting on the "right" committee can enable legislators to advance their policy or career goals (Crisp et al 2009;Frisch and Kelly 2006).…”