Legislative Behavior in the Aftermath of Disaster: Estimating the Effects of Cosponsorship Networks and Adaptation Cognition

Legislation is one of the core components of policy constellation for realizing adaptation strategies and disaster management. However, compared to policy content analysis, studies examining how legislators respond and take actions in national law-making arena are limited. The present paper focuses on legislative behavior in the aftermath of Morakot Disaster of 2009 that was the deadliest typhoon to impact Taiwan in recorded history and has since stimulated nationwide debates about adaptation measures for moderating the impacts of climate change. According to conventional wisdom, positions of legislators are divided and grouped in terms of ideological proximity, party affiliation, and local interests. However, risk perception awakened by natural disaster may transcend such segmentations and forge a viable consensus in legislative chamber. It is assumed that bill sponsorship and cosponsorship networks of Taiwanese Legislature Yuan had formed a web of supports leading to more successful environmental legislations in the aftermath of Morakot Disaster. Based on these networks, the study applies network analysis to clarify the linkage between the network configurations of cosponsorship and the effects of adaptation cognition of legislators, in comparison with personal attributes effects. The expected contributions of the study are twofold. It methodologically applies network analysis to gain deeper understanding about legislative behaviors in relation to disaster, and theoretically verifies the degree to which adaptation cognition upholds successful legislative actions.