Explaining legislative party discipline in a new democracy: the case of Lithuania

Abstract

ABSTRACT We explore what factors explain the legislative party discipline in a new democracy. We choose a Lithuanian case that offers a large pool of roll call votes. We find support for the explanations calibrated for specifics of new democracy. First, overall legislative party discipline tends to increase after the period of decreased electoral volatility. Second, hyper-accountability of voters creates incentives for legislators to defect more often in the last year of parliamentary term. Lastly, our research suggests that office incentives and phases of law-making could be as important explanations of legislative party discipline in new democracies, as in the old.