Foxes and Hedgehogs in Legislatures

Why Do Some MPs Become Policy Specialists and Others Generalists

Bibliographic Data

ID6300645
AuthorsJavier Martínez-Cantó (0000-0001-6389-7079, University of Konstanz, corresponding author), Christian Breunig (0000-0002-8074-6712, University of Konstanz), Laura Chaqués-Bonafont (0000-0002-0724-4871, Universitat de Barcelona)
Year2023
Volume48
Issue4
Pages869-896
Publication date2023-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLegislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lsq.12412
OpenAlexW4313332156
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited57

Which legislators become specialized in particular policy areas (hedgehogs), and which develop into policy generalists (foxes)? Instead of focusing on the individual characteristics of MPs, we build on institutionalist literature and argue that an MP's specialization arises from an interaction between MP and parliamentary leadership. These interactions generate demand for policy generalists depending on a leadership position, committee membership, government status, and parliamentary group size. Policy specialization is measured by how many different topics a legislator addresses in Parliament. Using data from Germany from 1998 to 2013, topic‐coded parliamentary questions are combined with MPs' personal and partisan data. Descriptively, foxes are common in Germany and dominate in Parliament. The subsequent estimation indicates that policy specialists are related to government status and parliamentary group size

Biology · Economics · Generalist and specialist species · Government (linguistics · Legislation · Legislator · Legislature · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Position (finance · Sociology · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration

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