Replication Data for: Explaining the Allocation of Legislative Specialization

This article explains why there is important variation in the degree of concentration of legislative specialization across legislative parties. Greater concentration of legislative specialization leads parties to concentrate their legislative efforts on a smaller set of policy jurisdictions. Through enhancing their concentration of legislative specialization in certain policy areas, parties might more clearly signal their policy concerns and interests to voters. This study argues and shows that party size alters the concentration of legislative specialization. In particular, I find that a U-shaped curve defines the relationship between party size and the degree of concentration of legislative specialization: niche parties and the largest parties choose higher levels of concentration of legislative specialization.本文阐释了各立法政党间立法专业化（legislative specialization）集中度存在显著差异的缘由。更高的立法专业化集中度，会促使政党将立法精力集中于更少的政策管辖领域。通过强化在特定政策领域的立法专业化集中度，政党能够更清晰地向选民传递其政策关切与利益取向。本研究论证并证实，政党规模（party size）会对立法专业化集中度产生影响。具体而言，本研究发现政党规模与立法专业化集中度之间呈U型曲线关系：利基政党（niche parties）与规模最大的政党均会选择更高水平的立法专业化集中度。