Bridging the Information Gap: Legislative Member Organizations as Social Networks in the United States and the European Union

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Bridging the Information Gap: Legislative Member Organizations as Social Networks in the United States and the European Union Legislative member organizations (LMOs)—such as caucuses in the U.S. Congress and intergroups in the European Parliament—exist in numerous lawmaking bodies around the world. Yet unlike parties and committees, LMOs play no obvious, predefined role in the legislative process. Bridging the Information Gap argues that LMOs provide legislators with opportunities to establish social networks with colleagues who share a common interest in an issue. Such networks, in turn, offer valuable opportunities for the efficient exchange of policy-relevant—and sometimes otherwise unattainable— information between legislative offices. Building on classic insights from the study of social networks, the authors demonstrate that LMO networks cut across party and committee lines and make all network members better informed . The authors provide a comparative overview of the existence of LMOs across advanced, liberal democracies and offer two nuanced case studies of LMOs in the European Parliament and the U.S. Congress. These case studies rely on a mixed method set-up that garners the respective strengths of social network analysis, sophisticated statistical methods, and careful qualitative analysis of a large number of in-depth interviews. Nils Ringe is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Jennifer Nicoll Victor is Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at George Mason University. Christopher J. Carman is Professor in Politics at the University of Glasgow. Bridging the Information Gap Legislative Member Organizations as Social Networks in the United States and the European Union nils ringe and jennifer nicoll victor with christopher j. carman The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2013 All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2016 2015 2014 2013 4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ringe, Nils. Bridging the information gap : legislative member organizations as social networks in the United States and the European Union / Nils Ringe and Jennifer Nicoll Victor ; with Christopher J. Carman. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-472-11880-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-02921-1 (e-book) 1. Legislative bodies. 2. Legislators—Social networks—United States. 3. Legislators—Social networks—European Union countries. 4. Public administration— Social aspects. 5. Political sociology. I. Victor, Jennifer Nicoll. II. Title. JF511.R55 2013 328.3'306—dc23 2013020497 To our families ...