Legislative processes as sequences: exploring temporal trajectories of Italian law-making by means of sequence analysis

Abstract

The study of time in legislative processes has so far understood time mainly as duration (of the process as a whole or of its single stages). This work contributes to existing research by presenting a new approach to the study of time which takes as the unit of analysis the whole temporal trajectory followed by a bill from its introduction to the floor to its final adoption. Legislative processes are conceived of as sequences of stages a bill has to go through before its final adoption. The relative time spent in each of these stages varies considerably. This work aims to explore the determinants of variation in the observed trajectories of relative duration. To this end, it applies the tools of discrepancy sequence analysis, a method commonly employed for the study of occupational histories or life courses. The analysis was conducted on a sample of Italian legislative acts adopted in Italy from 1987 to 2008. Points for practitioners The greater availability of longitudinal data and the increased focus of social science theory on temporal change have contributed to heightening the attention given by social science scholars to the tools of sequence analysis. Scholars are increasingly recognizing that this set of methods may effectively complement existing techniques for the study of temporal data, by allowing new questions to be addressed. This article shows an example of how sequence analysis may be extended beyond the study of life or career histories, where it has been mainly confined. What is more, it presents an application of a novel technique, discrepancy analysis, which allows the study of the relationship between the trajectories and covariates of interest in an explanatory framework.