Parliamentary Behaviour: Personal Choices, Political Results

Abstract

This chapter synthesises the conceptual wisdom and empirical findings of existing research into the UK Parliament with the theoretical foundations of psychological studies to offer an integrated model for parliamentary political behaviour (IMPPB). The IMPPB unites research on ideology, party socialisation and institutional choice to offer a new blueprint for analysing politicians’ parliamentary behaviours. Data on MPs' basic values are then coupled with Hansard records to assess to extent of MPs’ political agency in a range of contexts of varying institutional constraint. The results show, in particular, that (a) elected representatives make important decisions based upon their own personality characteristics and that (b) this effect operates in flux with informal pressures exerted by external role alters and internal party structures. Preliminary analyses are used to set a new agenda for studies of parliamentary behaviour.