Why Parties Vote Together in Montreal City Council: Rethinking
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UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Why Parties Vote Together in Montreal City Council: Rethinking Assumptions about Legislative Party Cohesion in Parliamentary Systems by Mateusz Trybowski A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2011 © Mateusz Trybowski 2010 Library and Archives Bibliothèque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-75255-5 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-75255-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non- support microforme, papier, électronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette thèse. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privée, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont été enlevés de thesis. cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ii Abstract: This thesis applies statistical techniques and elite interviews to measure party cohesion on important votes in Montreal City Council and reconcile its presence with parties‟ reported ideological heterogeneity and decentralized candidate nomination, campaign financing and appointment processes. It finds that party leaders‟ influence over these processes extends beyond formal descriptions of their authority and is exploited to cultivate political loyalty. Negative incentives for legislative party cohesion are nonetheless more often transmitted through informal cues than explicit threats. These cues interact with socialization processes in a manner that supports normative institutional explanations for legislative party cohesion – and could not be captured through comparative quantitative analysis. This thesis makes a secondary contribution to literature on Canadian municipal politics by bridging a twenty-year gap in research on Montreal‟s party system and testing claims made on behalf of party competition in other municipalities. iii Acknowledgments: I must first and foremost thank my supervisor, Dr. Lisa Young, for her invaluable insight, frequent advice, and willingness to accommodate my travels throughout this thesis project. I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to learn directly from Dr. Young who exceeded the call of duty in terms of her availability, attention, and enthusiasm for the unexpected directions in which this thesis evolved. Additional thanks go out to Dr. David Stewart and Dr. Byron Miller for serving on my committee and offering helpful comments, and to Judi Powell, Ella Wensel, and Bonnie Walter for their constant encouragement and administrative assistance. I am also indebted to Paul Fairie, who spent hours training me in the statistical techniques that are applied in this thesis; Dr. William Cross, who supervised my undergraduate thesis at Carleton University and whose research and teaching have made lasting impressions on my academic career; and Alex Munter who exposed me to the study and importance of municipal politics. I am equally grateful to this study‟s participants for fitting this project into their busy schedules and approaching interviews with candour and enthusiasm. This appreciation is also extended to staff at Montreal‟s City Archives and Clerk‟s Office for their cooperation in providing roll-call voting records and other information. This thesis project was funded through generous support from the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture (FQRSC), as well as the Alberta Government and Political Science Department at the University of Calgary. The unsung heroes of this project are my family (their support for me at all times has been generous and loving) and Rachelle Anctil who kept me driven and focused on what matters iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………… iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………. iv List of Tables………………………………………………………………… viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION……………………………………….. 1 CHAPTER TWO: CASE SELECTION AND RESEARCH DESIGN……... 5 Case Selection: Why Montreal?........................................................... 5 Montreal City Council‟s Quasi-Parliamentary Attributes…... 6 Contributions to Literature on Canadian Municipal Politics... 10 Analytical Scope…………………………………………………….. 12 Methodology………………………………………………………… 12 Quantitative Analysis………………………………………... 13 Qualitative Analysis…………………………………………. 14 CHAPTER THREE: QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS………………………. 18 City Council‟s Legislative Processes and Patterns of Disagreement... 18 Cluster Bloc Analysis of Council Voting Records…………………... 23 CHAPTER FOUR: LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………. 28 Theoretical Developments in Research on Legislative Party Cohesion 28 Legislative Voting as a Collective vs. Individual Phenomenon 29 Institutional vs. Sociological Theories for Leg. Party Cohesion 30 System-Level Analyses of Legislative Party Cohesion……………….. 34 v Executive-Legislative Relations……………………………….. 34 Electoral Systems………………………………………………. 35 Party-Level Analyses of Legislative Party Cohesion…………………... 36 Candidate Nomination and Removal Processes………………... 36 Election Campaign Financing and Expenditures……………….. 38 Quantitative Evidence for Career Incentives vs. Qualitative Evidence for Sociological Ones………………………………… 39 CHAPTER FIVE: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF INSTIT. THEORIES…… 47 1. Candidate Nomination and Removal Processes………………………. 47 Perceptions of Parties‟ Importance to Candidates‟ Electoral Competitiveness…………………………………………………. 48 Do Party Leaders or Members Control Candidate Selection Processes?....................................................................................... 49 Do Party Leaders or Members Oversee Caucus Removal and Admittance Decisions?................................................................... 52 Do Party Leaders Use their Authority over Caucus Evictions to Maintain Party Cohesion?............................................................... 53 2. Candidate Financing and Campaign Spending Practices……………… 56 Campaign Expenditures‟ Perceived Importance to Electoral Competitiveness………………………………………………….. 57 Party Affiliation‟s Importance to Campaign Financing………….. 57 Parties‟ Management of Candidate Campaign Expenditures…….. 60 3. Legislative Appointments and Policy Influence………………………. 62 3.1 Opportunities for Policy Influence and Career Advancement……….. 63 Council-Level Opportunities for Policy Influence and Career- Advancement……………………………………………………... 64 vi Council-Level Opportunities‟ Perceived Influence and Appeal...... 64 Party-Level Opportunities for Policy Influence and Career- Advancement……………………………………………………… 69 Party-Level Opportunities‟ Perceived Influence and Appeal……... 70 3.2 Party Leaders‟ Appointment Power and its Influence over Legislative Behaviour………………………………………………………………….. 74 Party Leaders‟ Appointment Powers………………………………. 74 Perceptions of Municipal Party Leaders‟ Appointment Criteria…. 76 3.3 Party Leaders‟ Methods for Disciplining Dissent……………………… 78 Do Party Leaders Sanction Dissent by Withdrawing Appointments? 78 Do Councillors Expect to be Sanctioned for Dissent with Demotion? 78 Do Councillors‟ Expectations of Being Disciplined for Dissent Arise From Informal Cues that Reinforce Institutional Norms?........ 82 CHAPTER SIX QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES 88 Support for Hypotheses that Attribute Party Cohesion to Ideology…............ 88 Support for Hypotheses that Attribute Party Cohesion to Socialization…….. 91 Comparing City and Borough Level Opportunities for Socialization.. 92 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION……………………………………………….. 97 Theoretical Contributions to Research on Legislative Party Cohesion……… 97 Substantive Contributions to Research on Canadian Municipal Politics and Montreal‟s Party System……………………………………………………... 100 Shortcomings and Openings on New Research Avenues……………………. 101 Appendix 1: Rules Governing Montreal‟s Electoral District Boundaries……………. 103 Appendix 2: Summary of Results for the 2001, 2005 and 2009 Montreal Elections… 105 vii Appendix 3: Script of Framing Interview Questions…………………………………. 109 Appendix 4: Index of Agreement Scores and Voting Blocs in