Not much is known about MP’s after they leave parliament. This study analyses the development of patterns in post-parliamentary employment in The Netherlands between 1967 and 2017. With 999 MP’s...Show moreNot much is known about MP’s after they leave parliament. This study analyses the development of patterns in post-parliamentary employment in The Netherlands between 1967 and 2017. With 999 MP’s coded, this is the most extensive study into post-parliamentary careers up to date and a first inquiry into a development over time. The study argues – and finds – that the function of parliament is increasingly used as a steppingstone for a further career as MP’s are increasingly making a move towards more attractive careers, either within or outside the political domain. Besides such dynamic changes, this study shows that MP’s from traditionally stronger and governing parties have a distinctive advantage for gaining a more attractive post parliamentary career while MP’s from anti-establishment parties have a distinctive disadvantage. Even when there is controlled for the background career of a MP. Finally, this study has tried to establish a link between the patterns of post-parliamentary employment and parliamentary behaviour for the first time. However, the results indicate that such a connection, if it is even present, is relatively weak.Show less
Despite the obvious disadvantages of coalitions with many partners, apparent already in the formation process, electorates in established democracies have been witnessing coalitions with many...Show moreDespite the obvious disadvantages of coalitions with many partners, apparent already in the formation process, electorates in established democracies have been witnessing coalitions with many partners throughout the years. In many studies on coalition governments however, coalitions are often treated as black boxes. In this quantitative study, I examine whether there is a linear relationship between the number of parties in coalition and the ability of the electorate to identify the party positions of the coalition partners. Through the use of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) and the ParlGov.org dataset, I created a dataset with 70 coalitions in twenty established democracies between 1996 and 2017. I used the standard deviation of the score on the left-right dimension assigned by the electorates to government parties as a proxy for disagreement among voters. Only a rather inconsistent relationship between the predictor variable and the dependent variable was found.Show less
While it has been well established that political dissatisfaction is related to voting for populist parties, we know less about what specifically this dissatisfaction has to do with the functioning...Show moreWhile it has been well established that political dissatisfaction is related to voting for populist parties, we know less about what specifically this dissatisfaction has to do with the functioning of democracy. This question of the relationship between how democracy is perceived to function and party preferences has attracted certain attention in established democracies, but almost none in post-communist East-Central European countries. To fill this gap, I ask (1) what aspects of dissatisfaction with democracy are related to voting for populist parties in this region and (2) to what extent dissatisfaction drives support for populist parties. The study employs European Social Survey 2012 and includes 6 East-Central European countries. I run a comparative quantitative study on the demand side and compare populist parties’ voters to non-populist voters and abstainers. Results suggest that support for democratic protest voting model is very country-specific, and that overall patterns with regards to the suggested model are hardly identified in post-communist democracies.Show less
Over recent decades, independent (non-party) candidates have become the largest political grouping in Irish politics. Within this grouping, one subsection that seems to dominate are the...Show moreOver recent decades, independent (non-party) candidates have become the largest political grouping in Irish politics. Within this grouping, one subsection that seems to dominate are the independents who have previously been party candidates, a.k.a. ex-party independents. The electoral system in Ireland has a big role to play in this. While in most electoral systems, leaving a political party (and not joining another) usually signals the end of one’s career, this is not necessarily the case in PR-STV systems, where ex-party independents can survive and sometimes even thrive outside of the party system. In the elections following their departure, these candidates can win large amounts of votes and transfers, with a significant number of those coming from their ex-party. This paper examines the relationships between ex-party independents and their former parties, focusing on the transfers that these candidate receives from that party. Furthermore, it aims to add to the study of ex-party independent candidates in Ireland, focusing on issues like electability, career longevity, origin parties, etc. and compares the performance of ex-party independents with those of other independent candidates.Show less
While many voters hold economically left-wing and culturally conservative views, there are few parties in Western Europe which represent this combination of views. This paper addresses recent...Show moreWhile many voters hold economically left-wing and culturally conservative views, there are few parties in Western Europe which represent this combination of views. This paper addresses recent developments in this situation. Comparing data from 2006 with that from 2017 in nine Western European countries, this paper finds that while social democratic parties have, if anything, become more progressive, a number of radical left parties have adopted more conservative positions on the sociocultural dimension. Furthermore, radical right parties have moved substantially left on the economic dimension, making them more "left-conservative" now than they were in 2006, although few are positioned inside the left-conservative quadrant. These findings are relevant in addressing the theoretical puzzle and challenge to representative democracy.Show less
