Issue Engagement Across Members of Parliament

The Role of Issue Specialization and Party Leadership

Bibliographic Data

ID6301029
AuthorsThomas M Meyer (0000-0002-0389-9918, Humboldt University of Berlin, corresponding author), Markus Wagner (0000-0002-0036-1266, University of Vienna, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume46
Issue3
Pages653-678
Publication date2021-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLegislative Studies Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0362-9805 • E-ISSN: 1939-9162
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lsq.12308
OpenAlexW3089093414
LanguageEN
Citations received15
References cited51

Studies on political communication in multiparty democracies usually focus on political parties as unitary actors and how they engage with each other in election campaigns. We deviate from this approach and study how issue engagement (i.e., the degree to which party actors address the same issues) varies across members of parliament. We argue that MPs’ role in parliament affects how they engage with other legislators. In particular, we expect an intraparty division of labor, where each party’s policy specialists address the same issues. Moreover, party front benchers have a distinct way of communicating: they are more likely to engage with other party leaders rather than with policy specialists of rival parties. Using spatial lag models based on approximately 15,000 press releases by Austrian MPs, we find empirical support for these expectations. Our findings show the limitations of the “unitary actor” approach for studying issue engagement in European party systems

Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sociology · Unitary state · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access