Parliamentary power in early representative assemblies: evidence from XVII century England

The patterns of behaviour of representatives in early parliaments have not received much attention in the political science literature. In this article, we bring in new data and propose several theoretical mechanisms that can account for this shift in power towards the early legislative body. Using the case of the 17th century English parliament and the records of its activities reported in the parliamentary journals as well as other sources of that period, we model and examine the policy-, vote- and office-seeking behaviour of England’s 17th century Parliament. We find that the primary changes in power, as measured by the number of legislative acts passed, can be attributed to the expansion of policy coverage. In contrast, vote-seeking and office-seeking behaviours appear to contribute less substantially to the expansion of parliamentary authority. The findings have important implications for our understanding of how elites behave in early and contemporary representative assemblies.