Parliamentary Rules and Institutional Design

Research question/goal: 

The project will systematically map and explain changes in parliamentary rules in 27 European countries over the post-war period. Theoretically, it builds on rational choice institutionalist models of institutions as equilibria. Empirically, the project will identify and code all changes in parliamentary rules with regard to their extent, content, and effects on political competition. This data is used to test competing theories of institutional change. In addition, the project creates a unique time-specific database of parliamentary standing orders in European democracies that will be useful for various strands of research in comparative legislative studies.

Current stage: 

Over the last year, the project focused on two main tasks. First, we collected and documented parliamentary rules for all democratic post-war years in 27 European countries. Second, we developed an extensive coding scheme for classifying the content of parliamentary rules. The scheme was applied successfully in a conference paper offering the first comprehensive analysis of all changes to the parliamentary rules in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since 1945 (Ulrich Sieberer, Wolfgang C. Müller, and Maiko Heller, "Reforming the Rules of the Parliamentary Game: Measuring and Explaining Changes in Parliamentary Rules in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, 1945-2010". Paper presented at the Annual Convention of the Section Comparative Politics of the DVPW, Duisburg, September 20-22, 2010). Due to Ulrich Sieberer's move to the University of Konstanz, the project was terminated at the MZES in early 2011.

Fact sheet

Funding: 
DFG
Duration: 
2008 to 2011
Status: 
continued elsewhere
Data Sources: 
parliamentary rules

Publications

Books

Sieberer, Ulrich (2010): Parlamente als Wahlorgane. Parlamentarische Wahlbefugnisse und ihre Nutzung in 25 europäischen Demokratien. Baden-Baden: Nomos. [Studien zum Parlamentarismus; 14] more

Journal Articles

Sieberer, Ulrich (2010): Behavioral Consequences of Mixed Electoral Systems. Deviating Voting Behavior of District and List MPs in the German Bundestag. Electoral Studies, 29, issue 3, pp. 484-496. more
Becher, Michael, and Ulrich Sieberer (2008): Discipline, electoral rules, and defection in the Bundestag, 1983-1994. German Politics, 17, issue 3, pp. 293-304. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2008): Prinzipal Parlament. Die Bedeutung europäischer Parlamente als Wahlorgane. Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 49, issue 2, pp. 251-282. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2006): Agenda setting in the German Bundestag. A weak government in a consensus democracy. German Politics, 15, issue 1, pp. 49-72. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2006): Party unity in parliamentary democracies. A comparative analysis. Journal of Legislative Studies, 12, issue 2, pp. 150-178. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2006): Strategische Zurückhaltung von Verfassungsgerichten. Gewaltenteilungsvorstellungen und die Grenzen der Justizialisierung. Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 16, issue 4, pp. 1299-1323. more

Book Chapters

Hönnige, Christoph, and Ulrich Sieberer (2011): Germany: Limited Government Agenda Control and Strong Minority Rights. Pp. 21-37 in: Bjorn Erik Rasch, George Tsebelis (Eds.) The Role of Governments in Legislative Agenda Setting. London: Routledge. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2009): Können ja - Wollen nein? Die Anreize externer Amtsträger zur Beschränkung der Regierung. Pp. 301-322 in: Helmar Schöne, Julia von Blumenthal (Eds.) Parlamentarismusforschung in Deutschland. Baden-Baden: Nomos. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2007): "Aber könnte es nicht auch sein, dass...?" Die Auswahl unabhängiger Variablen in X-zentrierten und Y-zentrierten Forschungsdesigns. Pp. 253-279 in: Thomas Gschwend, Frank Schimmelfennig (Eds.) Forschungsdesign in der Politikwissenschaft. Probleme - Strategien - Anwendungen. Frankfurt: Campus. more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2007): Selecting independent variables. Competing recommendations for factor-centric and outcome-centric research designs. Pp. 163-182 in: Thomas Gschwend, Frank Schimmelfennig (Eds.) Research design in political science. How to practice what they preach. Basingstoke: Palgrave. more

Conference Presentations

Sieberer, Ulrich (2010): Institutional Design in European Parliaments: Explaining Stability and Change in Parliamentary Rules. [Workshop on Future Research Perspectives, Zukunftskolleg der Universität Konstanz, Konstanz, September 16th, 2010] more
Sieberer, Ulrich (2010): Reforming the Rules of the Parliamentary Game: Measuring and Explaining Changes in Parliamentary Rules in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, 1945-2010. [Jahrestagung der DVPW-Sektion Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Duisburg, September 20th to September 22nd, 2010] more
Müller, Wolfgang C., Ulrich Sieberer and Michael Becher (2009): Engineering Parliamentary Rules. A Theoretical Framework and Macro Patterns in 20 European Democracies. [ECPR Conference 2009 Joint Sessions of Workshops, Lisbon, April 14th to April 19th, 2009] more