Who Speaks for the Economically Disadvantaged? A Text Analysis on German MPs

• In Event: Strategic Choices in Changing Environments

Abstract

Economic inequality has become a main concern in many established democracies. This raises questions about the proclivity of MPs to speak up on this issue in the legislative arena and thus substantially represent the concerns of the economically disadvantaged. This paper explores this question in view of the German case and a quantitative text-based analysis of legislators’ parliamentary questions, vote explanations, and floor speeches. In this analysis we gauge the extent to which German MPs reference blue collar employees and welfare recipients in their legislative activities and the factors that explain their motivation of doing so. Theoretically, we ask about the partisan as compared to the personal sources of their behavior, e.g. whether it is left MPs who particularly speak up for the economically disadvantaged or rather MPs with distinct individual level backgrounds and/or incentives. Empirically, the analysis draws from the legislative activities of all 709 German MPs in the 19th Bundestag and employs a dictionary approach that draws from the manifest concerns of relevant social organizations to estimate whether and why legislators speak for the economically disadvantaged.

Authors

• Thomas Zittel, Goethe-University Frankfurt

• Markus Baumann, Department of Social Sciences