Parliamentarians’ Appeal to Interest Groups: Patterns of Signalling Interest

• In Event: Speeches, Strategies and Institutions in Parliamentary Systems of Government

Abstract

Parliamentarians represent the interests of their principals – be it the party, voters, or also interest groups. Interest groups offer information, money, positions and post-parliamentary employment to MPs and are thus attractive partners that are likely to have legislative wishes. While the influence of parties and voters on parliamentarians is often studied, much less is known about the influence of interest groups. Although we know that interest groups impact voting behaviour (Giger and Klüver 2016), we still have little insight into their influence on other types of parliamentary behaviour (e.g. parliamentary questions, interpellations, postu-lates, motions, and parliamentary initiatives). Based on a new longitudinal dataset (2000-2015) with 6’342 interest groups mandates of 524 Swiss parliamentarians and 27’234 submit-ted legislative instruments, this paper sheds a uniquely detailed light on how interest groups ties affect the patterns of individual MPs’ legislative activities. In line with our key hypothesis, we find that interest group ties drive MPs’ behaviour and have a significant positive overall effect on MPs’ submissions in interest groups’ policy areas. This holds even if we control for other explanations such as expertise or previous professional experience.

Author

• Stefanie Bailer, University of Basel