Abstract
Studies on strategic parliamentary opposition often focus on broader behavioral patterns or party‐level variation. This article analyzes differences at the individual level, more notably between male and female opposition members of parliament. Using rational‐choice perspectives of opposition activity and theories of gendered political behavior, we hypothesize that female opposition members focus less on ideological conflicts (with or between coalition parties) and more on their party’s core issues. Furthermore, we expect them to more frequently target female ministers, in part because of the nature of their respective portfolios. Our analysis of all parliamentary questions tabled by opposition members in the Belgian Federal Parliament between 2007 and 2019 (N = 48,735) suggests that female members of parliament seem more likely to focus on issues that are salient to their party and less on conflictual matters between coalition partners. These results provide new empirical insights into strategic opposition behavior and gendered differences in the legislature.
Subject
Public Administration,Sociology and Political Science
Reference59 articles.
1. Andeweg, R. B. (2013). Parties in parliament: The blurring of opposition. In W. Müller & H. M. Narud (Eds.), Party governance and party democracy (pp. 99–114). Springer.
2. André, A., Depauw, S., & Martin, S. (2015). Electoral systems and legislators’ constituency effort: The mediating effect of electoral vulnerability. Comparative Political Studies, 48(4), 464–496.
3. Bäck, H., & Debus, M. (2019). When do women speak? A comparative analysis of the role of gender in legislative debates. Political Studies, 67(3), 576–596.
4. Bailer, S., & Ohmura, T. (2018). Exploring, maintaining, and disengaging—The three phases of a legislator’s life. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 43(3), 493–520.
5. Bakker, R., Hooghe, L., Jolly, S., Marks, G., Polk, J., Rovny, J., Steenbergen, M., & Vachudova, M. (2020). Chapel Hill Expert Survey. www.chesdata.eu
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献