ParlaMint corpus; text activity; clause length

Speeches from the Austrian parliament from years 1996 to 2022 are analyzed. We focus only on parties that were both in government and opposition in these years. The results follow the same pattern as in a previous study from the Czech parliament – speeches by members of parliament are simpler and more active when the party is in opposition, and more complex and less active when it is a part of the government coalition. Our results bring three new findings. First, right- and left-wing parties behave in the same way. Second, the differences between government and opposition are more pronounced when only longer speeches are taken into account. Third, the same behaviour can be observed also for individual members of parliament who switched their allegiance from opposition to government coalition.

Speeches from the Austrian parliament from years 1996 to 2022 are analyzed. We focus only on parties that were both in government and opposition in these years. The results follow the same pattern as in a previous study from the Czech parliament – speeches by members of parliament are simpler and more active when the party is in opposition, and more complex and less active when it is a part of the government coalition. Our results bring three new findings. First, right- and left-wing parties behave in the same way. Second, the differences between government and opposition are more pronounced when only longer speeches are taken into account. Third, the same behaviour can be observed also for individual members of parliament who switched their allegiance from opposition to government coalition.