MP Cooperation in Opposition Parties

Opposition parties are strange beasts: In absence of any chance of legislative success they are free to propose fanciful opportunistic policies, at the same time they should demonstrate their ability to take over responsibilities as stand-by government and demonstrate coherence and unity. Does this setting reflect in MP behavior? Do MPs seek unity to maximize electoral success or are MPs actions driven by committee, state and district constraints? Are opposition parties unitary actors at all, or must this assumption be scrutinized more? This contribution studies MP cooperation in the opposition and asks whether district, state and specialization are significant effects in the cosponsorship of motions for three opposition parties in the 17th German Bundestag. It does so by constructing a new measurement of (co-)specialization and introducing district proximity as a variable to the studies of German parliamentarism. Using the home state also, the study employs an inferential network analysis. The analysis shows that indeed co-specialization is a significant predictor for cooperation, but that state and district proximity are also significant predictors for supporting motions in two of three cases. The main contributions are first, a new dataset of the cosponsorship behavior in the 17th German Bundestag, second, new measurements for (co-)specialization and the impact of district neighborship, as well as, third, a first relational longitudinal analysis of cosponsorship in this setting.