Resolute Leaders and ‘Cardboard Deputies’: Parliamentary Party Unity in the New Spanish Democracy

Abstract:

This study puts forward a leadership-centred explanation of parliamentary party unity in new democracies, which departs from more common approaches that emphasise the effects of exogenous variables on rank-and-file legislator behaviour. By analysing party unity in the first two legislative sessions (1977–79, 1979–82) of Spain's nascent democracy, the study demonstrates that the Spanish parties manifested very high levels of voting unity. It argues that in order to understand party unity it is critical to examine party leadership goals and incentives; and it places leadership choices at the centre of the analysis.

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