The Effects of Political Parties on Roll-Call Voting in Kenya’s Parliament

Authors

Christian B. Jensen, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Michelle Kuenzi, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow
Daniel J. Lee, University of Nevada, Las VegasFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-30-2020

Publication Title

Journal of Legislative Studies

First page number:

1

Last page number:

20

Abstract

Parties are thought to organise democratic legislatures by influencing the voting behaviour of individual legislators. We examine whether parties and party coalitions influence the behaviour of legislators in Kenya. Ethnicity has been seen as the driver of party and electoral politics in Kenya and therefore Kenya provides a hard test of the proposition that political parties organise the legislature in Africa. Analysing roll-call voting in the 11th Parliament (2013–2017), we find that both political parties and coalitions induce structure to roll-call voting, although clientelism and ethnicity continue to influence the behaviour of MPs.

Keywords

Legislative Behaviour; Africa; Ethnic Politics; Parties

Disciplines

Political Science | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Language

English

Repository Citation

Jensen, C. B., Kuenzi, M., Lee, D. J. (2020). The Effects of Political Parties on Roll-Call Voting in Kenya’s Parliament. Journal of Legislative Studies 1-20.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2020.1782077