MAPPING LEGISLATIVE SOCIALIZATION

Legislative socialisation has long been an important force for politic al deradicalisation in capitalist democracies worldwide. It remains ba rely explored, however, in large part because it is a process very dif ficult to track by conventional observational or survey methods, We ci rcumvent these problems by taking advantage of an unusually propitious vote on televising the proceedings of the British House of Commons to chart the institutional deradicalisation of its Labour members. Socia lisation effects are shown to be non-linear and, while the difference is not statistically significant, to be marginally stronger among Memb ers of Parliament (MPs) with frontbench experience. The somewhat great er conservatism of frontbenchers, however, cannot be explained by anti cipatory socialisation. Rather, it seems to be a function of doing wel l under 'rules of the parliamentary game' threatened by proposals for institutional reform.