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Party Discipline and Parliamentary Politics
One of the chief tasks facing political leaders is to build and maintain unity
within their parties. Party Discipline and Parliamentary Politics examines
the relationship between party leaders and Members of Parliament in
Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, showing how the two sides
interact and sometimes clash. Christopher J. Kam demonstrates how incen-
tives for MPs to dissent from their parties have been amplified by a process
of partisan dealignment that has created electorates of non-partisan voters
who reward shows of political independence. Party leaders therefore rely on
a mixture of strategies to offset these electoral pressures, from offering MPs
advancement to threatening discipline, and ultimately relying on a long-run
process of socialization to temper their MPs’ dissension. Kam reveals the
underlying structure of party unity in modern Westminster parliamentary
politics, and drives home the point that social norms and socialization
reinforce rather than displace appeals to MPs’ self-interest.
christopher j. kam is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. He has received
major research grants from the US National Science Foundation and the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and his work
on political parties and parliamentary government has appeared in the
British Journal of Political Science, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and
Governance.
Party Discipline and
Parliamentary Politics
christopher j. kam
University of British Columbia
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
Information on this title: 0521518291
© Christopher J. Kam 2009
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