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Статус председателей парламентских комитетов в Государственной Думе VI-VIII созывов: законотворческая активность и сети соавторства
The article focuses on an analysis of the legislative activities of the chairs of parliamentary committees, which are key structures within the parliament and are formed primarily on a professional basis. Using the case study of the State Duma during its VI–VIII convocations, the role of the committee chair in terms of legislative activity and networking is examined.
In the first part of the analysis, the article reviews the rules of procedure and their amendments related to committee powers, as well as the frequency, subject matter, and success of initiatives initiated in collaboration with committee chairs. The second part presents an analysis based on social graphs generated from data on the co-authorships of 5,810 bills across three convocations. This analysis examines indicators of modularity, density, and centrality of networks, grouped by committee positions.
A comparison of these metrics reveals the evolution of the role of committee chairs in the co-authorship process. While in the VI-th convocation, heads of committees participated in the development of primarily specialized initiatives, in the VII-th and VIII-th convocations, a majority of chairs signed more frequently and on non-core bills. Additionally, their position within the network of co-authors has also shifted. In the VI-th convocation, the centrality of representatives from various committee positions was represented by comparable metrics. However, by the VIII-th convocation, chairs had become nodes with higher indicators of centrality, both in terms of degree and betweenness centralities. The trend towards centralization in the network, resulting from positions within the structures, coincides with a decrease in indicators of modularity and adoption of amendments to regulations, which have expanded the powers of committee heads.
It is worth noting that each chairman has a distinct personal strategy in lawmaking. At the same time, aggregated indicators for initiative development allow to trace the evolving role of this status within the rules of engagement in co-authoring as a voluntary network of political collaboration in parliament.