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- Title
Incentives for non-participation: absence in the United Kingdom House of Commons, 1997–2015.
- Authors
Fazekas, Zoltán; Hansen, Martin Ejnar
- Abstract
The ability to hold MPs accountable for their actions is one of the cornerstones of modern representative democracy. While it is important for MPs to send signals to both their constituents and to their party, a large number of MPs remain absent from votes. Those absences are an important part of the MP's toolbox, but absences carry limitations, rooted in electoral and political constraints. We investigate how—conditional on the electoral cycle—some well-established political constraints along the government and opposition lines vary in strength. We examine the absence probabilities of MPs in the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2015, and find that as the next elections are approaching, political constraints somewhat weaken and electoral ones take over, but marked differences emerge between parliamentary sessions.
- Subjects
LEGISLATORS; VOTING abstention; GREAT Britain. Parliament. House of Commons; LEGISLATIVE voting; POLITICAL accountability; REPRESENTATIVE government
- Publication
Public Choice, 2022, Vol 191, Issue 1/2, p51
- ISSN
0048-5829
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11127-021-00950-6