Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability.
Legislative gridlock is a failure of one of the key functions of government: to pass legislation. Can voters counter such political dysfunction? This paper examines whether and how voters hold politicians accountable for gridlock. We focus on the passage of the government budget, the central task of...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2020-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229789 |
| _version_ | 1818586653335224320 |
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| author | Asger Lau Andersen David Dreyer Lassen Lasse Holbøll Westh Nielsen |
| author_facet | Asger Lau Andersen David Dreyer Lassen Lasse Holbøll Westh Nielsen |
| author_sort | Asger Lau Andersen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Legislative gridlock is a failure of one of the key functions of government: to pass legislation. Can voters counter such political dysfunction? This paper examines whether and how voters hold politicians accountable for gridlock. We focus on the passage of the government budget, the central task of any legislature, and define a legislature to experience budgetary gridlock if it fails to pass the budget on time. We argue, based on evidence from twenty years of budget enactment data, that voters hold state legislators accountable for budget gridlock in US state governments, with gridlocked incumbents losing their seat more often than incumbents passing budgets on time. Based on established theories of party organization in American politics, we develop three competing theoretical hypotheses to guide our understanding of the observed patterns of retrospective voting. We find strong support for collective electoral accountability with voters punishing incumbent members of state legislature majority parties. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:56:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-23f2689d14bc4c558018e3d345df0ced |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T08:56:23Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-23f2689d14bc4c558018e3d345df0ced2022-12-21T22:37:17ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032020-01-01153e022978910.1371/journal.pone.0229789Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability.Asger Lau AndersenDavid Dreyer LassenLasse Holbøll Westh NielsenLegislative gridlock is a failure of one of the key functions of government: to pass legislation. Can voters counter such political dysfunction? This paper examines whether and how voters hold politicians accountable for gridlock. We focus on the passage of the government budget, the central task of any legislature, and define a legislature to experience budgetary gridlock if it fails to pass the budget on time. We argue, based on evidence from twenty years of budget enactment data, that voters hold state legislators accountable for budget gridlock in US state governments, with gridlocked incumbents losing their seat more often than incumbents passing budgets on time. Based on established theories of party organization in American politics, we develop three competing theoretical hypotheses to guide our understanding of the observed patterns of retrospective voting. We find strong support for collective electoral accountability with voters punishing incumbent members of state legislature majority parties.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229789 |
| spellingShingle | Asger Lau Andersen David Dreyer Lassen Lasse Holbøll Westh Nielsen Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. PLoS ONE |
| title | Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. |
| title_full | Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. |
| title_fullStr | Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. |
| title_short | Irresponsible parties, responsible voters? Legislative gridlock and collective accountability. |
| title_sort | irresponsible parties responsible voters legislative gridlock and collective accountability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229789 |
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