Electoral Incentives and the Costs of Indiscipline in the Ukrainian Rada

Abstract

Does indiscipline hurt the electoral prospects of legislators? Using electoral and roll-call data from the Ukrainian Rada between 1994 to 2014, I test whether shirking affects the likelihood of Rada deputies running as partisan candidates and winning seats in the next election. I argue that the costs of indiscipline vary by electoral systems. I analyze the impact of ill-discipline on the electoral prospects of both single-member district (SMD) and proportional-representation (PR) deputies. The analysis shows that indiscipline has little cost for SMD deputies and modest costs for PR deputies.