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Article in Legislative Studies Quarterly
Independents in Parliament: Temporary Status or Final Destination? Raimondas Ibenskas, Paulina Sałek-Lipcean, Sona N. Golder, Allan Sikk AbstractPolitical parties are essential for structuring parliamentary decision-making in democracies. However, in some countries, as many as 10% of legislators experience spells outside of parliamentary party groups. This paper sheds light on this important group of independent politicians by analyzing whether…
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Independence versus Affiliation: What Determines Entry into Parliamentary Party Groups?
Our paper prepared for the APSA 2023 Annual Meeting, Los Angeles Abstract. Political parties are often considered essential for structuring parliamentary decision-making in democracies. However, many MPs experience spells of being non-affiliated with any parliamentary party group (PPG), either because they were elected as independent candidates or left their PPGs earlier in the legislative term.…
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Does switching pay off? The impact of parliamentary party instability on individual electoral performance
Our paper prepared for the APSA 2023 Annual Meeting Abstract. Members of parliament who change their parliamentary party group (PPG) affiliation can be motivated by a variety of factors but the desire to improve their electoral prospects is often argued to be the among the most important. But does switching PPG affiliation improve or damage…
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Understanding the Complexity of Party Instability in Parliaments
Download our paper prepared for the APSA 2022 Annual Meeting that proposes a new typology of parliamentary party switches. Abstract. We propose a new typology of parliamentary party switches (switching events) that focuses on three dimensions: (1) the number of MPs and the degree of coordination, (2) the origin of switchers and (3) the destination…
Party Instability in Parliaments: INSTAPARTY 