The most unkindest cuts: speaker selection and expressed government dissent during economic crisis

Alexander Herzog and Kenneth Benoit

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Economic crisis and the resulting need for austerity budgets have divided many governing parties and coalitions in Europe, despite strong party discipline in the legislative voting on these harsh budgets. We measure these divisions using automated text analysis methods to scale the positions that legislators express in budget debates, in an effort to avoid punishment by voters for supporting austerity measures, while still adhering to strict party discipline by voting along party lines. Our test case is Ireland, a country that has experienced both periods of rapid economic growth as well as one deep financial and economic crisis. Tracking dissent from 1987 to 2013, we show that austerity measures undermine government cohesion, as verbal opposition markedly increases in direct response to the economic pain felt in a legislator’s constituency. The economic vulnerability of a legislator’s constituency also directly explains position taking on austerity budgets among both government and opposition.

Keywords: text analysis; intra-party politics; economic crisis; budget debates; parliamentaryspeeches (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E6 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-10-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-mac and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of Politics, 1, October, 2015, 77(4), pp. 1157 - 1175. ISSN: 0022-3816

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:62243

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