Physical conflict in the world's legislatures: Why do legislators brawl?
Key information
- Date
- Time
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11:00 am to 12:30 pm
- Event type
- Online
About this event
The Centre of Taiwan Studies is delighted to welcome Dr Nathan F. Batto to give an online talk about his recent book, Making Punches Count: The Individual Logic of Legislative Brawls.
The world's parliaments have seen hundreds of brawls over the past few decades in countries all over the world. Observers often dismiss these events as examples of hot-headed politicians losing their self-control.
This book argues that, to the contrary, this behavior represents strategic politicians trying to advance their political careers within the democratic system. They are using violence to send a costly and credible signal about themselves to a target audience who they think might help them. Our research explores some implications of this theoretical framework, including which legislators are more likely to brawl, the critical role of the media in transmitting signals, the target audience for different brawlers, and the effect of brawling on re-election.
About the speaker
Dr Nathan F. Batto is an associate research fellow at the Institute of Political Science, Academia Sinica and the Election Studies Center, National Chengchi University. His research focuses on electoral and legislative politics and his articles have been published in journals including Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, and Legislative Studies Quarterly. His recent book, Making Punches Count: The Individual Logic of Legislative Brawls (Oxford University Press, 2024), explores why democratically elected representatives participate in physical violence in legislatures with a special focus on Taiwan and Ukraine but also drawing on the experience of many other countries including South Korea, Japan, Mexico, South Africa, and the United States. It was awarded the 2025 Richard Fenno Prize for the outstanding book in legislative studies. He is the author of the blog Frozen Garlic, which provides detailed and accessible analysis of elections in Taiwan.
Image credit: Ethan Lin via Unsplash
