Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/207210 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 7819
Publisher: 
Center for Economic Studies and ifo Institute (CESifo), Munich
Abstract: 
Why do politicians rebel and vote against the party line when high stakes bills come to the floor of the legislature? We leverage the three so-called Meaningful Votes that took place in the British House of Commons between January and March 2019 on the Withdrawal Agreement that the Conservative government had reached with the European Union to address this question. The Withdrawal Agreement was decisively defeated three times and a major revolt amongst Conservative backbench Members of Parliament (MPs) was instrumental in this. We find that three factors influenced their rebellion calculus: the MP’s own preference, constituency preferences and career concerns. Somewhat paradoxically, the rebellion within the Conservative Party came from MPs who had supported Leave in the 2016 Brexit referendum and from MPs elected in Leave leaning constituencies.
Subjects: 
Brexit
roll call votes
rebellions
party discipline
party coherence
House of Commons
JEL: 
D72
Document Type: 
Working Paper
Appears in Collections:

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.