{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.016233766233766232, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0021645021645021645, 'mean_word_length': 5.042483660130719, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
How Ireland Voted 2007: The Full Story of Ireland's General Election

strong case for the existence of an independent ‘party effect’ that goes beyond ideological affinity between party colleagues, the conclusion that this must be due to the ability of parties to discipline their members is not self-evident. In the end, the authors do not provide much evidence that the party effect they observe empirically is linked to successfully enforced party discipline, which somewhat weakens their conclusions regarding the true strength of parties in the EP. The book thus opens up debate on important new quandaries that deserve our attention. Another such example is the question of how the second main structural component of legislative organisation in the EP, its standing committees, fit into the story. These remaining empirical puzzles, however, indicate why the EP can serve as a useful testing ground for theories of legislative politics more generally, and why scholars of other legislatures should find value in reading this book. Democratic Politics sets a high standard for future analyses of political processes and outcomes in the EP, while demonstrating just how ‘normal’ a parliament the EP has become over time. New research will take the basic premise of this book as a starting point, and deservedly so. The book concludes with some final thoughts linking its findings to the question of democracy in the EU. The book itself has the potential to make an important contribution in this regard, however, as it conclusively invalidates the widespread misconception that the EP and its parties are irrelevant. It could thus trigger a broader recognition that what happens in Strasbourg is of genuine importance to EU citizens, which in turn could be a first step toward greater participation and more democratic accountability in the EU.