Accounting for Change in Free Vote Outcomes in the House of Commons

Dados Bibliográficos

ID6227702
AutoresAnthony Mughan (The Ohio State University), R Scully (0000-0002-8058-7846, The Ohio State University), Roger M Scully
Ano1997
Volume27
Fascículo4
Páginas619-659
Data de publicação1997-10-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBritish Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-1234 • E-ISSN: 1469-2112
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0007123497230292
OpenAlexW2069110423
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas11
Referências citadas2

Parliamentary decision making is a growth area in the study of the British House of Commons. This is a facet of the behaviour of Members of Parliament (MPs) that tended to be ignored as long as the Commons was seen as a legislature that, cravenly subject to party discipline, simply rubber-stamped policy decisions made by the party leadership. By the 1960s, cohesive party voting had reached the point where ‘it was so close to 100 per cent that there was no longer any point in measuring it’. But more recently, this image of the Commons and its members has worn at the edges. While party loyalty remains very much the norm, MPs have shown themselves more willing than in the past to assert themselves against their party's leadership in order to exercise greater policy influence. One prominent example is the select committee system set up in 1979 to improve parliamentary scrutiny of the executive. Another is the higher incidence of backbench rebellion and dissent in the division lobbies after the mid-1960s

Commons · House of Commons · House of Representatives · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Scrutiny · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political Systems and Governance · Public Administration