Voting Positions Research Articles

Do Women Benefit from Women Education Aid? Evidence from Panel Data

Generally, the literature on aid focuses on the potential growth effects of aggregate aid. Due to the fact that donors have consistently asserted the multidimensionality of their purposes, it is necessary to conduct a much more disaggregated analysis of aid effectiveness. In this study, the effect of women education aid on 72 developing countries is examined empirically over the period 1990–2016. Using cross-country regression, this study examines the effectiveness of aid targeted at women’s education. Based on the fact that donors provide a large amount of women’s education aid to countries whose voting positions in the UN General Assembly are similar, this analysis exploits an instrumental variable. This study shows that women’s education aid has a significantly positive effect on women’s education. The results of this study are robust when different sensitivity checks are performed. The findings have significant policy implications for donor countries and international aid organizations, as they assist in identifying the most effective types of foreign aid flow to the various sectors of the recipient country’s economy.

Voting in the shadow of Russian aggression. Evidence from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 2012–2016

ABSTRACT The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is not just the oldest but also the most institutionalised and powerful international parliamentary assembly. As transnational parliamentary body with the Russian Federation and Ukraine among its members, it showcases a laboratory for transnational parliamentary voting behaviour in the context of international geopolitical conflicts. We theorise how geopolitical aggression between member states change the voting pattern in the assembly. Whereas we generally assume a partisan cleavage as the main sorting mechanism, we theorise that this dimension will diminish under geopolitical threat. To test our claims, we explore voting patterns in the PACE around the Russian annexation of Crimea 2014. Using all contested votes from 2012 to 2016, we find that voting positions are structured around national interests in times of geopolitical tensions whereas a left-right cleavage emerges once the aggressor (i.e. Russia) was absent from the PACE.

Say-on-Pay voting dispersion in listed family and non-family firms: A panel data analysis

The study of Say-on-Pay (SOP) – a shareholder vote on executive compensation – is a key topic in the corporate governance field, despite which its influence in the context of family firms has not been studied until now. In response to this need, this paper pursues a twofold objective: first, to analyze differences in shareholder voting behavior between family and non-family firms; second, to explore the impact of increasing family ownership on voting dispersion among family firms, testing the related moderating effects of family involvement in management and governance on this relationship. Focusing on a sample of large UK listed companies from 2007–2017, our results show that the distinctive features of family firms lead to more concentrated voting positions regarding pay packages compared to non-family firms, with this voting concentration tending to be higher as family ownership increases. Moreover, while this relationship intensifies when the family is involved in management, we find partial support in the case of family involvement in governance.

Issueframing als een vorm van equivalence framing

Abstract Issue framing as equivalence framing: The effect of conservative and progressive introduction texts on political attitudes reported in Voting Advice Applications The framing of a message can affect the way people think about an issue, and the framing of attitude questions influences the opinions expressed. Current research investigated political emphasis framing in the context of Voting Advice Applications. In an online survey regarding the European Elections (2019), a conservative vs. progressive frame was manipulated across 15 questions. As the original VAA did not include introductory texts to the questions, a control condition without introduction texts was also added. Participants (N = 106) were randomly assigned to one of these three conditions. Results show that there is an effect for conservative introductions to elicit answers reflecting more progressive attitudes, but only for the group of respondents with conservative voting positions (PTV). This pattern could not be explained by political sophistication: higher political sophistication is related to a main effect of more progressive answering behaviour, but does not explain the framing effect for conservative frames in the conservative group.

Examining Political Trustworthiness through Text-Based Measures of Ideology

This work shows the value of word-level statistical data from the US Congressional Record for studying the ideological positions and dynamic behavior of senators. Using classification techniques from machine learning, we predict senators’ party with near-perfect accuracy. We also develop text-based ideology scores to embed a politician’s ideological position in a one-dimensional policy space. Using these scores, we find that speech that diverges from voting positions may result in higher vote totals. To explain this behavior, we show that politicians use speech to move closer to their party’s average position. These results not only provide empirical support for political economy models of commitment, but also add to the growing literature of machine-learning-based text analysis in social science contexts.

Can aid for financial sector buy financial development?

Most of the aid literature focuses on the potential growth effects of aggregate aid, with mixed results. Considering that donors have repeatedly asserted the multidimensionality of their purposes, a much-disaggregated analysis of aid effectiveness is necessary. The effect of aid targeted to financial sector is examined empirically for almost 70 developing countries during the period 1980–2016. The effectiveness of aid targeted to financial sector is assessed here within the framework of cross-country regression. Numerous indicators of financial development, particularly private credit provided by the banking sector, are considered as outcome variables. Further, this analysis exploits an instrumental variable based on the fact that donors provide large amount of aid targeted to financial sector to countries which have similar voting positions in the United Nations General Assembly. The analysis suggests that aid targeted to financial sector has a significantly positive effect on financial development. This result is robust with different sensitivity checks such as using alternative measures of financial development, measures of aid, estimation methods and dropping outliers. The finding has strong policy implications for donor countries and international aid organisations.

Ideological diversity in standard setting

I compare voting positions taken by Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) members on standards to positions taken by constituent sponsors in comment letters both before and after the emergence of the FASB’s conceptual framework. I find that, relative to the Pre-CF regime (1973–1986), FASB members in the CF regime (1987–2007) take positions that are (i) less like their constituent sponsors and (ii) more like one another. Both shifts are associated with standards increasing accounting relevance; in the CF regime, such standards are likely a product of the framework’s broad focus on decision usefulness. From 1996 to 2007, all but one dissenting vote on fair value standards explicitly argues for an even greater use of fair values, while none argue for less use. To the extent standard-setters’ idiosyncratic ideologies influence their voting positions, the evidence is consistent with a decline in the level of ideological diversity among FASB members.

Ideological Diversity in Standard Setting

I explore whether the level of ideological diversity among Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) members has declined since the emergence of their conceptual framework. I analyze votes made by FASB members on Statements of Financial Accounting Standards and compare them to comment letters submitted by constituent sponsoring organizations. I demonstrate that, relative to the Pre-CF regime (1973–1986), FASB members’ voting positions in the CF regime (1987–2007) are (i) less like their constituent sponsors and (ii) more like one another. The former result is primarily attributable to differences between FASB members with auditor and preparer backgrounds and those groups’ sponsors. Both of these shifts are associated with standards increasing accounting relevance; in the CF regime, standards that increase relevance likely do so because of the framework’s broad focus on decision usefulness. I document a significant increase in sponsors’ dissent in the CF regime, and regression analysis indicates that variation in standards’ authoritative references to the conceptual framework accounts for all of this increase. Lastly, from 1996–2007, all but one dissenting vote by FASB members on fair value standards explicitly argues for an even greater use of fair values, while none argue for less use. To the extent FASB members’ individual ideologies influence their voting positions, the evidence is consistent with a decline in the level of ideological diversity among FASB members in the CF regime.

The United Kingdom Referendum on European Union Membership: The Voting of Conservative Parliamentarians

AbstractThis article considers the attitudes of members of the parliamentary Conservative Party (PCP) during the European Union (EU) membership referendum held in the United Kingdom (UK) on 23 June 2016. First, the article identifies the voting positions – remain or leave – of each Conservative parliamentarian in order to assess the strength of opinion within the PCP and place it within its historical context. Second, the article uses multivariate analysis to test a series of hypotheses about the voting of Conservative parliamentarians. Through this we will aim to identify whether any associations existed between advocates and opponents of Brexit and social variables such as age, schooling, university, occupation and gender; political variables such as constituency marginality, and whether they were a minister, an ex‐minister or a permanent backbencher; and the ideological variable of morality – such as support for or opposition to same sex marriage.

Why do states change positions in the United Nations General Assembly?

Many international organizations deal with repeated items on their agendas. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) is no exception as many of its resolutions reoccur over time. A novel dataset on UNGA voting on repeated resolutions reveals considerable, but variable, amounts of change on resolutions by states over time. To shed light on underlying causes for voting (in)consistency, this paper draws on IR literature on negotiations and foreign policy changes to develop hypotheses on the role of domestic and international constraints. Our findings suggest that states with limited financial capacity cannot develop their own, principled, voting positions on all norms on the negotiation agenda. Consequently, these states can be more flexible in adjusting their voting position for reoccurring IO norms and are more prone to change their positions over time. Moreover, states with constrained decision-makers change position less frequently due to pluralistic gridlock. Finally, while large and rich states make a small number of purposive vote shifts, poor and aid-recipient states engage in ‘serial shifting’ on the same resolutions, a finding suggestive of vote-buying. The prevalence of position changes suggests that the international norm environment may be more fragile and susceptible to a revisionist agenda than is commonly assumed.

The EU Council enlarged: North-South-East or core-periphery?

This article aims to evaluate the emerging patterns of decision-making in the European Union after the first Eastern enlargement through an analysis of voting positions in the Council of Ministers. By applying three methods (cluster analysis, factor analysis and Bayesian item-response modelling), it assesses the new spatial dimensions of EU policy-making. The results show that the level of open contestation at the Council meetings has risen following enlargement, but the general coalition-building patterns remain similar to the ones in the old EU. The analysis also indicates that it is possible to identify a winning coalition that constitutes the critical mass of the qualified majority of weighted votes for the periods before and after the Eastern enlargement. Furthermore, the size of the largest coalition in relation to the qualified majority threshold becomes smaller in the EU of 25 member states, which may herald a new era of increased policy stability.

Redistricting and Polarization: Who Draws the Lines in California?

In the United States, the process of drawing election districts is left to individual states, and critics of legislative redistricting often argue for independent panels to take control of the process. A common claim is that legislative redistricting has been a major contributor to polarization in the American political system. Previous attempts to test for a relationship between redistricting and polarization have generally relied on cross-state comparisons of redistricting methods and examinations of behavior in the House of Representatives. In this paper, I exploit the alternation between legislatively drawn and panel-drawn districts in California since the mid-1960s. Using data at the state legislature level, I find evidence that legislatively drawn districts have been, on average, less competitive than panel-drawn districts. Moreover, as districts become “safer,” legislators tend to take more extreme voting positions. Finally, I find evidence that legislative redistricting (compared with panel-drawn redistricting) is associated with increased polarization.

Board Enacts Big Reduction in Governance Structure

Board Enacts Big Reduction in Governance Structure

Conflict Measures in Cooperative Exchange Models of Collective Decision-making

This study focuses on externalities of exchanges of voting positions in collective decision-making. Exchanges are represented by non-constant two-person cooperative games. It is assumed that the rate of exchange is specified by the Raiffa-Kalai-Smorodinsky solution, and a model is specified to identify the exchanges. Externality effects of these exchanges are assessed with two conflict measures we develop here. The measures assess within-group and between-group conflict, respectively, and are applied to collective decision-making in the European Union regarding support for fishery infrastructure. The application shows that the measures provide indispensable insights into the decision-making setting and that these can be used for strategic intervention in the setting. It also shows that both actors' power and the outcomes in exchange with externalities are very different from those in exchange without externalities as studied by theories of network exchange.

Partidos fracos na arena eleitoral e partidos fortes na arena legislativa: a conexão eleitoral no Brasil

This article analyzes the determinants of voting positions in the Brazilian House of Representatives (Chamber of Deputies) in relation to the preferences of the Executive Branch, focusing on the reasons leading Deputies to cooperate with or resist the President's interests on votes. The article examines the role played by political parties in the Deputies' behavior both inside and outside Congress, as well as the main instruments used by the Executive to encourage cooperative legislative behavior, applying a multivariate econometric model to estimate the determinants of Deputies' votes. The authors conclude that Deputies, especially those belonging to parties in the government coalition, cooperate with the President, following the orientation provided by their party leaders, as a strategy to access political and financial benefits controlled by the Executive, which in turn can be used in the electoral arena in order to maximize their odds of political survival, and that these same Deputies are the ones with the greatest odds of being reelected.

Money, Politics, and Medicine: The American Medical Pac's Strategy of Giving in U.s. House Races

We examine contributions by the American Medical Association's political action committee (AMPAC) to candidates for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives during two electoral cycles (1989-1990 and 1991-1992). In contrast to earlier studies, we do not find any systematic evidence to support the conventional wisdom that AMPAC contributes to influence legislators' positions on roll call votes or that AMPAC's contribution decisions are influenced by legislators' voting positions. We do find that AMPAC contributes to promote access to decision makers and to help elect (or reelect) legislators who would be expected to be more generally sympathetic to the economic and practice concerns of AMA physicians. As points of comparison, we also examine contributions from the top five tobacco PACs and the National Rifle Association's (NRA) PAC and find that legislators' roll call voting positions are strongly related to contributions received from these organizations.

Response to James

Scott James is gutsy to attempt a refutation of the power of district-level constituency interests on regulatory policy voting in an arena like railroad policy. I believe that his case is weak, but I want to emphasize that party and district political economy interests are intimately interrelated. Party is, as the author argues, a powerful (the most powerful) coalitional mechanism. Representatives often support positions that represent the preferences of party colleagues and not their own, in order to win or maintain political control and support for critical policies, so long as those “vote trading” issues do not represent central concerns at home. Thus southern agrarians included important labor provisions in the 1914 Clayton Antitrust Act in order to get the support of Northern Democrats who had already loyally backed the (agrarian) Democratic position on the tariff bill of 1913. On such a vote, representing an intraparty, biregional coalition bargain, party will naturally “predict” voting positions better than region. But the legislative history leaves little doubt from whence each policy (labor, tariff, and antitrust) originated.

Turnover and Voting Stability in the Senate

Little is known about the senators who change their voting positions during normal political times, but it is generally assumed that incumbents have very stable voting records and that vote changes come primarily from the replacement of personnel. This article examines how turnover is related to Senate voting shifts on a variety of issues. The majority of vote changes come from incumbents rather than freshmen. Further, there is no overall difference in the proportion of vote changes made by party turnovers and intraparty replacements.

The Nordic Countries and the New International Economic Order: Consensus and Disagreement within the Nordic Group

Huldt, B. The Nordic Countries and the New International Economic Order: Consensus and Disagreement within the Nordic Group. Cooperation and Conflict, XIV, 1979, 149-157. The unity among the Nordic countries in the UN, as measured quantitatively by voting agreement rates, has been demonstrated in several studies. The Cold War conflict has been regarded as the major constraint upon Nordic unity, Finland being the country most often deviating from the group. Through the relative lack of great power conflict involved, the NIEO issues would appear to offer ideal ground for Nordic unity. The present paper discusses voting positions and official declarations made by the various Nordic UN delegations 1974- 77. The analysis suggests that there is apparent disagreement, Denmark now being the deviating group member. Membership of the European Community seems a decisive factor. In the future, however, other (national, perhaps, rather than international) factors may also become increasingly important. Growing difficulties in maintaining Nordic unity could also imply added urgency to demonstrate such unity - when and where it might be found. The ambiguity of such projections should be considered when trying a realistic approach to the concept of like-mindedness.