Pre-Election Positions and Voting Behaviour in Parliament: Consistency among Swiss MPs

Schwarz, Daniel; Schädel, Lisa; Ladner, Andreas (2010). Pre-Election Positions and Voting Behaviour in Parliament: Consistency among Swiss MPs. Swiss political science review / Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 16(3), pp. 533-564. Wiley 10.1002/j.1662-6370.2010.tb00440.x

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This article examines the determinants of positional incongruence between pre-election statements and post-election behaviour in the Swiss parliament between 2003 and 2009. The question is examined at the individual MP level, which is appropriate for dispersion-of-powers systems like Switzerland. While the overall rate of political congruence reaches about 85%, a multilevel logit analysis detects the underlying factors which push or curb a candidate's propensity to change his or her mind once elected. The results show that positional changes are more likely when (1) MPs are freshmen, (2) individual voting behaviour is invisible to the public, (3) the electoral district magnitude is not small, (4) the vote is not about a party's core issue, (5) the MP belongs to a party which is located in the political centre, and (6) if the pre-election statement dissents from the majority position of the legislative party group. Of these factors, the last one is paramount.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	11 Centers of Competence > KPM Center for Public Management 02 Faculty of Law > Other Institutions > Teaching Staff, Faculty of Law 03 Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Institute of Political Science
UniBE Contributor:	Schwarz, Daniel, Schädel Stojanovic, Lisa, Ladner, Andreas
Subjects:	300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 350 Public administration & military science 300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science
ISSN:	1424-7755
Publisher:	Wiley
Language:	English
Submitter:	Daniel Schwarz Badertscher
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2015 11:18
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 14:50
Publisher DOI:	10.1002/j.1662-6370.2010.tb00440.x
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Swiss Elections, Members of Parliament, Pledge Fulfilment, Legislative Behaviour, Vote Advice Applications
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/73367