The practice and implications of legislative proxy voting in Ukraine |
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Authors: | Erik S. Herron Brian Fitzpatrick Maksym Palamarenko |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Political Science, John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA;2. Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, West Liberty University, Wheeling, WV, USA;3. Independent Scholar, L’viv, Ukraine |
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Abstract: | Governing parties often face the challenge of coordinating the behavior of legislators to pass bills and achieve their policy goals. Solutions to this collective action problem vary, but generally involve a combination of inducements and punishments to encourage legislators to toe the party line. “Ghost voting,” a form of proxy voting in which legislators record roll-call votes in place of their absent co-partisans has been noted over time in many representative institutions. This article addresses the process of proxy voting in Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, empirically demonstrating that proxy voting has been widespread and essential to the success of crucial legislation. At the same time, proxy voting creates impediments to measures of legislative unity and undermines accountability. |
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Keywords: | Roll-call voting proxy voting Ukraine |
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