Prof. Dr. Thomas Saalfeld

Parliamentary Voting Behaviour in the German Bundestag

Parlamentarisches Abstimmungsverhalten im Deutschen Bundestag

PIs: Prof. Dr. Stefanie Bailer (ETH Zürich), Prof. Dr. Thomas Saalfeld (Otto-Friedrich-Universit?t Bamberg), Dr. Ulrich Sieberer (Universit?t Konstanz)

Researchers: Dipl.-Pol. Henning Bergmann (Otto-Friedrich-Universit?t Bamberg), lic. phil. Tamaki Ohmura (ETH Zürich)

Funding period: 01 May 2012 - 30 April 2014

Funding: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsf?rderung

Contact:thomas.saalfeld(at)uni-bamberg.de

Project Description:

Existing studies of parliamentary party groups have generated an extensive body of theory and empirical knowledge of parliamentary behaviour and the role of parties within parliamentary systems. In the face of these established theories, however, the field of legislative studies has not produced equivalent empirical studies explaining behaviour at the level of the individual parliamentarian. Specifically, empirical studies that aim to explain toeing or breaking the party groups’ line in legislative votes are still insufficient. For the German case, this shortcoming in the research can primarily be explained by the lack of a comprehensive database on legislative behaviour. While lists of all roll-call votes are a matter of public documentation, a systematic collection of votes incorporating their relevant context factors is not available. This project is developing a database of every voting decision taken by each Member of Parliament in all roll-call votes in the history of the German Bundestag (1949 – 2013) that will enable in-depth analyses of individual level, party group specific and context relevant factors, as well as secure future attention to the research of the Bundestag.

The initial step in this project was to document the actual voting behaviour. In the next step information on each vote, such as the subject, the initiating parties and the outcome of the vote were collected and integrated into the dataset. Similarly, information on each Member of Parliament, such as her mode and margin of victory at the last election, her position within the party group and her level of seniority were added. The database is finalized with the integration of information on context specific factors, such as the government status and the relative majority of parties.

Following the data integration process the project will proceed to its final stage, namely the analysis of individual level, institutional and context specific factors on voting behaviour. At the institutional level it focuses on the effects of the mixed-member proportional electoral system. Specifically it seeks to understand if the mixed-member system leads to voting behaviour comparable to that of pure majoritarian or proportional electoral systems. At the individual level, personal career ambitions and individual political resources are taken into consideration. Finally, context relevant factors can reveal underlying voting explanations such as government – opposition or coalition dynamics.

Additionally we will seek to explain variations in the “supply” of recorded votes, testing a number of basic hypotheses about the strategic use (frequency, issue areas and timing) of recorded votes in the chamber.

The main achievement of this project lies in its systematic integration of explanatory variables on multiple levels, enabling a comprehensive understanding of legislative voting behaviour.

Datasets:

Data can be accessed via Havard Dataverse: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/btvote. Please also note the information on correct citation.

Project-related Publications:

• Sieberer, Ulrich/Saalfeld, Thomas/Ohmura, Tamaki/Bergmann, Henning/Bailer, Stefanie (2018): Roll-Call Votes in the German Bundestag: A New Dataset, 1949–2013. British Journal of Political Science, Bamberger Katalog (Universit?tsbibliothek)
• FIS (Forschungsinformationssystem)
• FlexNow2
• Intranet
• Office 365
• Online-Dienste
  (Studierendenkanzlei)
• UnivIS 
• Uni-Webmail:
  https://mailex.uni-bamberg.de
  https://o365.uni-bamberg.de
• Virtueller Campus