| Abstract [eng] |
Networks of Legislative Bill Sponsorship: the Case of Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania In this thesis the networks of legislative bill sponsorship in the Seimas of Republic of Lithuania are analyzed The main research object of this thesis are ties between members of Lithuanian parliament. The sponsorship of the same private member bill is treated as these ties that connect two members of the parliament. The main question of this thesis is – that are the factors that influence the members of parliament to sponsorship private member bill together. Looking from the angle of social networks analysis – what are the factors that increase the probability of ties between legislators? So the purpose of this research is to analyze networks of legislative bill sponsorship in the Seimas of Republic of Lithuania using the tools of social network analysis and to identify the main factors that drives the ties formation between Lithuanian legislators. The main 5 hypothesis are tested: H1 Partisanship influences ties formation – legislators from the same political party tend to sponsorship bills together more frequently. H2.The distance between parties influence ties formation – the bigger is the distance between legislators the less frequent they will sponsorship bill together and vice versa. H3.Specialization of MP influences ties formations – legislators working for the same standing committee tend to sponsorship bill together more frequently. H4.Being in parliamentary majority or opposition influences ties – legislators, who belongs to the majority or opposition tend to sponsorship bill with the colleagues within these groups more frequently. H5. Territoriality influence ties formation – legislators representing constituency of the same territory tend to sponsorship bills together more frequently. After testing these hypothesis the following conclusion can be made. The two main reasons that drives the tie formation between parliament members of Lithuania are partisanship and specialization. So legislators from the same party and working on the standing committee together tend to collaborate more on initiating private members bill. Nevertheless, the qualitative research of bill sponsorship networks showed that the effect of these two factors vary among party groups and standing committees. Belonging to the majority or the opposition also effects the formation of ties, but the effect is not so big. The other two hypothesis are not confirmed nor does the distance between parties nor does the territoriality lie behind the formation of bill sponsorship networks. |
