Power versus ideology: political group switching in the European Parliament

Hix, Simon and Noury, Abdul (2018) Power versus ideology: political group switching in the European Parliament. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 43 (4). pp. 551-594. ISSN 0362-9805

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Abstract

Why do legislators switch party? We seek to identify whether “party switching” is mainly determined by power (to join a more influential party) or ideology (to join a party with closer policy goals). We focus on the 557 cases of political group switching in the European Parliament between 1979 and 2014. We find that most of these cases were from smaller, more marginal, and oppositional groups, to larger, more pivotal, and governing groups. Nevertheless, we also find that ideological congruence (between an MEP and his or her prospective group) was an important determinant of political group switching.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19399162
Additional Information:	© 2018 Washington University in St. Louis
Divisions:	Government
Subjects:	J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Date Deposited:	24 May 2018 13:36
Last Modified:	11 Dec 2024 21:38
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/88056

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