Explaining Physical Violence in Parliaments

Why do lawmakers resort to physical violence in some parliaments but not others? Brawls only constitute a stark break with democratic norms and ideals, they also affect voter perceptions have been seen as bellwether for conflict backsliding. Yet, the phenomenon remains poorly understood. This paper introduces new, original dataset recording reported incidents of fights across globe between 1980 2018 that includes almost four times more cases than existing data. Theoretically, we argue levels democracy composition parliament should drive violence. The analysis shows fighting is most common countries are neither very autocratic nor democratic, fragmented parliaments, chambers slim majorities. findings implications study (de-)democratization, political instability, design institutions.