Achieving Intra-Party Cohesion during Committee Negotiations - The Room for Manoeuvre of Individual Legislators in the Bundestag and the Tweede Kamer

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Who Gets What and Why? Committee Assignments in the German Bundestag

Although committee assignments have been researched in various parliaments, findings are inconclusive. This article contributes to the debate by analysing the allocations to specialised committees in the Bundestag, a legislature that establishes strong committees despite having strong parliamentary party groups. Studying assignments in this legislature can, therefore, help us to solve the present disjunction between ‘European’ and ‘American’ experiences regarding committee research. The study uses the congressional theories of legislative organisation as heuristic devices but explicitly highlights the strong involvement of parliamentary party groups. The hypotheses are tested with a multiple membership multilevel model across several legislative periods (1990‒2013) and backed up with evidence from 51 interviews with German legislators. The results show that next to constituency demands and the influence of regional factions, there is strong evidence for a reassignment pattern and that a legislator’s occupational background and connections to interest groups matter in the assignment process.The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Committee autonomy in parliamentary systems - coalition logic or congressional rationales?

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Not So Random After All? - Revisiting Committee Assignments in Dáil Éireann

In this paper, I analyse the allocation of legislators to specialised committees in Dáil Éireann. Committees are privileged decision-making arenas: Committee members have, once assigned, the right and duty to work on issues within their jurisdiction. It is, therefore, important to understand which factors influence the assignment process. In what has been the most thorough analysis hitherto, Hansen [(2011). A random process? Committee assignments in Dail Eireann. Irish Political Studies, 26(3), 345–360] has found very little patterns explaining this process in the Dáil. The study uses the congressional theories of legislative organisation as heuristic devices to deduce several rationales of the assignment process. The role of parliamentary party groups in the assignment process is highlighted. The hypotheses are tested by means of a multiple-membership multilevel model on committee assignments across multiple legislative periods (1992–2011). The results are backed up with evidence from 22 interviews I conducted with Irish legislators. Contradicting earlier assessments of the assignment process, several factors increase the likelihood of being assigned to a committee. There is strong evidence for a reassignment pattern. Additionally, a legislator's occupational background matters in the assignment process. For the ongoing discussion about the applicability of the congressional theories outside of the U.S., my study provides evidence for the usefulness of the U.S. theories.The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

The partisan foundations of parliamentary speech: how parliamentary party groups decide who gets to speak for them

Institutions, Decisions and Collective Behaviou

What Happens after Assignments? The Room for Manoeuvre of Committee Members in the Bundestag and the Tweede Kamer.

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Who Goes Where? Committee Assignments in the Tweede Kamer

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020

Committee Assignments in Parliaments with Strong Party Groups - An Analysis of the Bundestag, the Tweede Kamer and Dáil Éireann. 2016 ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops, Scuola Normale Superiore, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna and University of Pisa

The Institutions of Politics; Design, Workings, and implications ( do not use, ended 1-1-2020