Resolute Leaders and ‘Cardboard Deputies’: Parliamentary Party Unity in the New Spanish Democracy

Abstract

This study puts forward a leadership-centred explanation of parliamentary party unity in new democracies, which departs from more common approaches that emphasise the effects of exogenous variables on rank-and-file legislator behaviour. By analysing party unity in the first two legislative sessions (1977–79, 1979–82) of Spain's nascent democracy, the study demonstrates that the Spanish parties manifested very high levels of voting unity. It argues that in order to understand party unity it is critical to examine party leadership goals and incentives; and it places leadership choices at the centre of the analysis.

Keywords:

• Party Unity
• Party Discipline
• Legislative Cohesion
• Democratisation
• Political Parties, Spain

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the Fundación Transición Española, the Fulbright Program, the American Political Science Association and the Program for Cultural Cooperation for generous research funding. She also thanks the numerous politicians who agreed to be interviewed for this project, Paige Roland, Teresa Sieiro and the wonderful staff at the archive of the Congress of Deputies for research assistance, and the anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments.

Notes

 [1] The interviews were semi-structured. All interviewees were offered anonymity; some opted for anonymity while others agreed to be cited by name, and still others agreed to be cited by name as having been interviewed but preferred not to be directly quoted.

 [2] The PSOE presented joint lists with the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Congress (PSC-Congrés) in Catalonia. The two federated (PSC-PSOE) in 1978.

 [3] The PCE and the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC), formally separate yet federated parties, presented joint lists in Catalonia.

 [4] In February 1982 the minimum requirements were heightened. A minimum of 15 deputies were required, or a minimum of five if the party or parties won (1) 15 per cent of the vote in the districts where they presented candidates, or (2) five per cent of the national vote.

 [5] The first session of Congress was held on 13 July 1977. Spain allows some laws to be passed in committee, whereby no floor vote is taken. Individualised voting records are not available for bills voted in committee. During this period fewer than ten per cent of laws were passed in committee (Field 2006, note 37). Initially the parliamentary rules indicated that committees could be delegated full legislative powers except on ‘matters of special importance’ (Article 102, Reglamento Provisional) (BOE 1977). A rules change in February 1982 made it easier to delegate full legislative powers to committees. In 2012, the Congress of Deputies began making individual legislator votes available on its website.

 [6] The index is calculated as follows: ‘IVL = 100 − (A − B), where A = percentage of party group A voting pro on resolution X, B = percentage of party group B voting pro on resolution X, and (A − B) = absolute value of A − B’ (Raunio 1999, p. 201). Individual values are then averaged.

 [7] Using Rice Indexes of Party Cohesion changes the number of votes by parliamentary group because groups that abstain may not have at least two deputies voting Yes or No, and are therefore excluded from the analysis.

 [8] I calculated all mean averages in this section based on the cited authors' data.

 [9] Barcelona, 21 May 2008.

[10] Madrid, 22 May 2008.

[11] Madrid, 30 May 2008.

[12] Madrid, 4 June 2008.

[13] Madrid, 2 June 2008.

[14] Madrid, 14 May 2009.

[15] Madrid, 22 May 2008.

[16] Interview, senior PSOE politician, Madrid, 4 May 2009. Information is conflicting about whether and when this was done by the other parties.

[17] Txiki Benegas (PSOE), Madrid, 27 May 2008.

[18] For example, Enrique Curiel, Madrid, 13 May 2009; Txiki Benegas, Madrid, 27 May 2008.

[19] Prominent UCD stray, anonymous, Madrid, 5 June 2008.

[20] Madrid, 28 May 2008.