Consensus and Structure in Legislative Norms: Party Discipline in the House of Commons

Decisions about which attitudes toward legislative behavior should be treated as institutional norms depend on the method used to identify these attitudes and how consensus is measured. One result is that these decisions are sometimes inconsistent. They also may not be compatible with the generally held definition of the legislative norm as a rule governing behavior, which has been accepted by a majority of legislators. This study examines parliamentary attitudes toward breaches of discipline in the British House of Commons to identify those which should be treated as norms. Consensus on behavioral attitudes among MPs is measured with a technique which can be applied in any legislative setting, and the widespread agreement on party discipline norms is evidence of a stable structure of expectations maintained by effective communication and enforcement mechanisms.