The sectoral connection: electoral systems and legislative cohesion

Abstract

The organizing question for this paper is: when do parties act as coherent groups in the legislature and under what conditions do factions and alliances act as such? I find that the electoral system is crucial to answering this question, because electoral systems determine the strength of party, faction, and alliance leaders. Common beliefs or a conjunction of selfish interests can also lead a group of legislators to vote together at times, but individual and group interests often conflict and thus especially in presidential systems, consistent discipline must be imposed by strong leaders. This paper therefore examines the relationship between electorally-derived leadership powers, in particular leaders' ability to control the nomination process, with cohesive voting in the legislature.