The Uneasy Relationships Between Parliamentary Members and Leaders

Parliamentary members and parliamentary leaders recurrently find themselves in uneasy - and even testy - relationships. The interests of parliamentary leaders in programme adoption often are at tension with the concerns of members of parliament with individual advancement in parliament and party, with interest articulation and with constituency concerns. This cross-national work analyzes these difficult and often testy relations and tensions between parliamentary members and leaders through studies ranging from Germany to the United States, and from New Zealand to global perspectives. The bases of such uneasy member-leadership relations, their manifestation and sometimes resolution, and the consequences of member-leadership tension to effective parliamentary performance and policy-making is considered in each examination.