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Searching for the Electoral Connection: Parliamentary Party Switching In the Ukrainian Rada, 1998–2002
Author(s) -
THAMES FRANK C.
Publication year - 2007
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 - 10.3162/036298007780907888
Subject(s) - ukrainian , legislature , politics , political science , connection (principal bundle) , selection (genetic algorithm) , political economy , economics , law , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , linguistics , artificial intelligence , geometry
Studies of legislative behavior almost universally begin with the assumption that legislators desire reelection. For scholars who study the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada, this assumption is perhaps tenuous, given the weaknesses of political parties and the significant party switching. Yet an analysis of party switching between 1998 and 2002 using a new method that controls for selection bias demonstrates that, although turnover among parties was high, this turnover followed an electoral logic: deputies changed parties, in part, to secure reelection. Thus, the electoral connection, assumed in so much of the legislative behavior literature, existed even in the chaotic Rada.