Making Punches Count (Paperback)

Nathan F. Batto

ISBN 10: 0197744435 / ISBN 13: 9780197744437

Published by Oxford University Press Inc, New York, 2024

About this Item

Paperback. In Making Punches Count, the first comprehensive account of legislative floor violence and its consequences, Nathan Batto and Emily Beaulieu focus on recent episodes from a wide variety of countries, including Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Mexico, Uganda, and others. What do cultures of legislative brawling tell us about the health of democracy in a given country? Are the brawls mere fits of passion, or is there a deeper logic at work? Bacchus andBatto argue that legislative brawls are, in fact, calculated acts that serve the interests of the legislators who engage in them. Beginning from the incentives driving lawmakers in different party systems anddrawing on both signaling theory and theories of contentious politics, they develop a powerful explanation of why individual legislators choose to brawl. As they show, brawls are more common in younger democracies, particularly ones with high levels of corruption, but sometimes there are contextual factors that make violence an attractive strategy even to legislators in long-established democracies. Ultimately, brawls should be seen as calculated acts of politicalviolence initiated by legislators to advance their careers. Legislators can strategically use brawling to send costly signals to the actors--both opponents and allies--who will have the most influence overtheir political fortunes. A genuinely novel account of why conflict can reach such extreme levels in democracies, the book also sheds light on the structural mechanisms that drive politicians to violence in settings where we least expect it. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780197744437

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Making Punches Count (Paperback)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197744435
• ISBN 13: 9780197744437
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

In Making Punches Count, the first comprehensive account of legislative floor violence and its consequences, Nathan Batto and Emily Beaulieu focus on recent episodes from a wide variety of countries, including Turkey, South Korea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Mexico, Uganda, and others. What do cultures of legislative brawling tell us about the health of democracy in a given country? Are the brawls mere fits of passion, or is there a deeper logic at work? Bacchus and Batto argue that legislative brawls are, in fact, calculated acts that serve the interests of the legislators who engage in them. Beginning from the incentives driving lawmakers in different party systems and drawing on both signaling theory and theories of contentious politics, they develop a powerful explanation of why individual legislators choose to brawl. As they show, brawls are more common in younger democracies, particularly ones with high levels of corruption, but sometimes there are contextual factors that make violence an attractive strategy even to legislators in long-established democracies.

Ultimately, brawls should be seen as calculated acts of political violence initiated by legislators to advance their careers. Legislators can strategically use brawling to send costly signals to the actors--both opponents and allies--who will have the most influence over their political fortunes. A genuinely novel account of why conflict can reach such extreme levels in democracies, the book also sheds light on the structural mechanisms that drive politicians to violence in settings where we least expect it.

About the Author

Nathan F. Batto is Associate Research Fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica, and he holds a joint appointment at the Election Study Center, National Chengchi University. He previously taught at the University of the Pacific. He has published widely on electoral and legislative politics in Taiwan.

Emily Beaulieu is Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. She received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego and has published books and articles on democracy and contentious politics.