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The Sound of Rebellion: Voting Dissent and Legislative Speech in the UK House of Commons
Author(s) -
Slapin Jonathan B.,
Kirkland Justin H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
legislative studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.728
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1939-9162
pISSN - 0362-9805
DOI - 10.1111/lsq.12251
Subject(s) - dissent , house of commons , legislature , voting , representation (politics) , linguistics , political science , government (linguistics) , house of representatives , politics , law , public administration , parliament , philosophy
Using data on the content of debate associated with votes in the UK House of Commons from 1992–2015, this article examines how government party MPs employ language in legislative speech when they vote against the party line. We find a robust statistical association between dissent on votes and the use of first‐person pronouns, simpler language, and giving longer speeches. Using a random forest algorithm for classification, we find that these language covariates are predictive of rebellion. The use of simpler, first‐person language has implications for political representation and offers new insight into how MPs use votes to distinguish themselves from their party, perhaps reflecting attempts to connect with constituents.