Data on behavior of MPs/MLAs once elected

[Ryu Matsuura]

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is doing great. My name is Ryu - I am an economics PhD student at Northwestern University. I am looking for data that help me understand the behavior of MPs and/or MLAs once elected. I wonder if any of you are aware of any datasets that would be relevant. Does anyone know, say, if there are any digitized or archival records of how each state MLA or MP cast a ballot for each legislation in the assemblies? I would really appreciate it if you can kindly let me know if there are any datasets that can help me understand the behavior of Indian politicians. 

I am aware that the MPLADS data (which Professor Francesca Jensenius compiled) as well as the Question Hours data from the Trivedi Center are out there. If anyone knows any other datasets (even undigitized records would be helpful), please let me know! Thanks so much in advance! 

Regards,

Ryu

[Shiv Hastawala]

Hi Ryu

I'm not sure about what you mean by 'how an MP/MLA cast a ballot in their legislation'. Casting a ballot usually refers to the act of voting in an election. If you mean to say that you need info on who these politicians voted for (which they do since they are also citizens of the nation) or something similar regarding their own vote, then I don't think anything of that sort is going to be available.

But if you meant something else and if I didn't understand that, it would be great if you could please explain it once again.

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Thanks and regards.

Yours sincerely

Shiv Hastawala

(He/His/Him)

Doctoral Student

Department of Economics

Binghamton University (State University of New York)

Zoom ID: 201 717 2613

www.shivhastawala.com

[Ryu Matsuura]

Hi Shiv,

Thanks for asking and sorry for the lack of clarity here - what I meant is how each MP/MLA votes for bills/legislations introduced in assemblies. I fundamentally would like to understand how each politician behaves in office so I wonder if there are any datasets or archives on (i) which bill is introduced by which politician and (ii) how each politician reacts to bills (e.g. votes for or against bills).

Thanks so much!

Ryu

[Shiv Hastawala]

Nope, we don't have data that is that detailed. However, there is data collected by PRS Legislative regarding MP/MLAs' attendance, number of questions asked in Parliament/Vidhan Sabha etc. It spans about 3-4 variables. I'm not sure if you already know about it, but you can access the data here:

https://prsindia.org/mptrack

https://prsindia.org/mlatrack

Thanks and regards.

Yours sincerely

Shiv Hastawala

(He/His/Him)

Doctoral Student

Department of Economics

Binghamton University (State University of New York)

Zoom ID: 201 717 2613

www.shivhastawala.com

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/datameet/6ce8bc7f-c826-4700-b73a-1944cfdb9f52n%40googlegroups.com.

[Praachi Misra]

In India, voting on legislation is not a 'conscience vote'. Legislators, do not take individual positions, but follow the party whip. Not following the whip can lead to the disqualification of legislators, or breakaway groups.

A detailed write up is available here from the Lok Sabha & Parliament library. PRS provides a more concise write-up here.

Regards,

P

[pmay...@gmail.com]

Hi Ryu,

I endorse what Praachi has said in his response: in Parliamentary systems, party discipline is the rule. In Australia, for example, on the rare occasion an MP defies 'the whip' it may be front page news.

Many years ago Henry Hart interviewed many MPs in the Indian Lok Sabha. Since there were no interesting differences in voting behaviour, he concentrated on the different ways they related to their constituents:

"MPs as Nation-Builders"

Henry C. Hart

Economic and Political Weekly

Vol. 2, No. 3/5, Annual Number (Feb., 1967), pp. 191+193-195+197-200 (8 pages)

best wishes,

Peter Mayer

[Ryu Matsuura]

Thanks so much everyone (and sorry for my late reply)! This is of tremendous help - given what Praachi and Peter mentioned, the provision of local public goods (or something else along the line) may be more helpful to understand the behavior of Indian politicians... Thanks again!

[Raman Chima]

While we do not have "conscience votes" in Indian legislatures, that is one factor amongst a few related issues that results in the fact that recorded votes are generally not a rule. Most votes on matters in Parliament tend to be a voice vote, with divisions rarely called - and the deterioration/further partisan positioning of speakers and presiding offices resulting in even fewer acceptance of division requests recently. The Indian Parliament is definitely one of the more striking examples amongst national parliaments for that. https://prsindia.org/articles-by-prs-team/parliament-voting-ayes-vs-noes-and-road-from-manual-to-electronic-recording

That said, I wouldn't say that MP behaviour, interventions in the house do not form a component worth studying in order to understand their behaviour. Even looking at the range of interventions they make provides a useful sense of the issues they do raise in parliamentary questions, interventions (and who they join together in such interventions and on what topics, including constituency issues), as well as the private members bills that many MPs file, even though they know the chance of such bills being accepted for introduction, let alone later debate and enactment, are loaded against them. The PRS MPTrack tool for each MP is quite useful in that regard as an opening sense of that as Shiv mentioned. It does require more careful analysis and a recognition of the multi-tiered reasons that might motivate an MP (asking a question on a stalled project is often a reasonable tactic for an MP belonging to/allied with the ruling coalition if they believe they have limited inroads to the executive branch ministry/agency concerned, whereas opposition MPs would perhaps be more inclined to try to bring a debate on an issue. And sometimes questions may be jointly asked by several MPs because they depend on common secretarial staff or party machinery). And MPs themselves do monitor the statistics released on their parliamentary activity and what the press may be saying on them as a result of that (again, the context can vary based on the political affiliation, political situation of the MP and the wider government-legislative relationship on that issue or person). 

For most subject specific study, people use the initial data released by the houses of Parliament and compiled by PRS, and then go deeper into the text of the actual questions asked, answers received, transcript of house proceedings (because the summarisation often misses key important telltales, trends for lawmaker activity). 

I would encourage you to speak to the teams at PRS, who can share what of their own datasets are available and the best way to understand lawmaker activity, trends based on that data. [happy to connect you if helpful, though some may already be on this list]

Raman.

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[Tousif Raja Khan]

Dear Ryu,

Yes, the link you provided to the PRS Legislative Research website https://prsindia.org/billtrack could be a helpful resource for the information you are seeking.

PRS Legislative Research is an independent research institute that tracks the functioning of the Indian Parliament and state legislative assemblies. They maintain a database of bills introduced in the parliament and state assemblies, as well as information on how each parliamentarian voted on these bills.

You can use their website's "Bill Track" feature to search for bills by keyword, bill number, or year of introduction. The search results will display information on the bill's status, summary, and voting details, including how each MP/MLA voted on the bill.

Additionally, PRS Legislative Research also provides analytical reports on the functioning of the Indian Parliament and state assemblies, which may be useful in understanding how politicians behave in office.

I hope this information helps you in your research. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Regards,

Tousif Raja Khan

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    Regards

Tousif Raja Khan