Birds of a Feather Govern Together: Inter-Party Ties and Legislative Cooperation

This study seeks to advance our understanding of how inter-party personal ties among politicians impact legislative cooperation between parties. Considering that parliamentary bargaining is typically featured by weak or lacking formal institutions and high uncertainty—the kind of context in which organizational sociology research has found personal ties to be particularly influential for human interactions—we argue that personal ties between parties should increase the likelihood of cooperation. We evaluate our argument analyzing Swedish local governments, combining registry data on horizontal dynastic ties—i.e., two politicians in different parties being first- or second-degree relatives or partners—with survey data on self-reported inter-party personal connections. Our analyses consistently substantiate that inter-party ties—and especially so close family ties—impact government formation and other types of legislative cooperation. These findings have implications for our understanding of parliamentary dynamics as well as the representation of less-connected groups.