Should I stay or should I go? British voter you got to let me know! Prime Ministers, intra-party conflict, and membership referendums in the British Westminster model

Thomas König and Xiao Lu
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Thomas König: Department of Political Science, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany
Xiao Lu: Collaborative Research Center 884, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

Journal of Theoretical Politics, 2020, vol. 32, issue 4, 557-581

Abstract: We explain the referendums on British membership of the European Communities and European Union from a principal–agent perspective between the Prime Minister and the rank-and-file. We show that announcing a referendum on the Prime Minister’s membership proposal helps the incumbent party to win the general election when the rank-and-file is divided on the terms of membership. When the Prime Minister overcomes the rank-and-file’s mistrust of her effectiveness in negotiating new membership terms with other member states, the voters are more likely to follow her proposal. However, when intra-party controversies reveal principal–agent problems, the initially uninformed voters can learn about the dysfunctionality of the terms and are more likely to reject the Prime Minister’s proposal.

Keywords: Brexit; intra-party conflict; Prime Minister; referendum; Westminster model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:jothpo:v:32:y:2020:i:4:p:557-581

DOI: 10.1177/0951629820956273

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