Many contributions on legislative politics in the European Parliament rely
on recorded votes. However, few studies investigate the motivations
behind invoking a recorded vote. This paper addresses visible votes from
an original conceptual angle: Roll-call vote requests are considered as a
minority right that offers parliamentary groups an opportunity to influence the voting agenda and to signal commitment to a policy proposal. As such, roll-call vote requests constitute part of an oppositional tool-kit in an otherwise
consensus-oriented institution. The paper adds to our understanding of
legislative behavior by empirically linking the committee to the plenary
stage. Party groups which do not support a draft legislative proposal in
committee are found to be more likely to request a roll-call vote in plenary.
The quantitative evidence is supplemented by interview data with Members
of the European Parliament.
