Analyze the issues of a legislative debate through the lens of parliamentary questions
Our database gathers the questions asked in the National Assembly on the posting of workers during the 14th legislature (2012-2017). The data was automatically retrieved from the Assembly's website, using a set of terms (posted workers, posted work, social and European dumping, posting of workers, international service provision, transnational service provision). We also checked every question one by one in order to avoid keeping ones that were not directly related to the posting of workers.
The database consists of 481 questions. The analysis of their content is in line with previous works using lexicometrics to study national or European parliamentary debates (Proksh, Slapin, 2010; de Galembert et al., 2013). We used the open source software Iramuteq to identify repetitions, co-occurrences and distances between the terms used by the MPs and to bring out different 'lexical worlds' (Reinert, 2007). In addition to the questions' discursive content, the database contains a set of information relating to their date, form and the minister to whom they are addressed.
Combining textual analysis with data on parliamentarians and their constituencies makes it possible to link the questions' content with their authors' personal features. We identified three lexical worlds, corresponding to registers through which the issues relating to the posting of workers are politicised, but also to various figures of parliamentary representation. These parliamentary roles are to a greater or lesser extent taken on by the MPs according to their partisan affiliation. The first role serves a localized and political moral enterprise against economic liberalism. It is mainly used by peripheral MPs, outside the governing parties. A second role relates to a parliamentary contribution to the making of reforms. It is significantly characterised by members of the socialist government majority. Finally, a third role corresponds to the defence of sectoral and/or employer interests, that is specific to the right-wing opposition MPs.
Our research design enables us to analyse the driving forces behind the positions taken in a parliamentary debate. Our dataset could be supplemented (questions asked in subsequent parliaments, in other parliaments, MPs and constituencies' features, etc.) and used for comparisons (on other issues, with equivalent data sets in other parliaments, etc.). This dataset is also an example of an empirical study on parliamentary work and legislative debates relating to European policy issues. Finally, it may be used for teaching purposes on textual analysis.