Coalition Politics and Policy

Abstract

Parliamentary systems have often been criticized for lacking in terms of accountability due to the prevalence of government coalitions. As parties in governing coalition may attempt to shift the blame to their coalition partners, either by maintaining that the coalition partners are responsible for particular policies or that they have prevented action being taken, improving our understanding of how government coalitions operate is crucial to evaluating the performance of parliamentary systems as well providing opportunities for holding parties accountable. In recent years scholars have, therefore, begun paying closer attention to how government coalitions manage policy conflict within the coalition and how coalitions decide on policy. The panel is dedicated to formal and/or empirical work that advances our understanding in this area. These include analysis of how coalition parties settle differences and/or the adoption of institutions to manage conflict and their effects. Topics of interest, thus, include the allocation of cabinet portfolios, appointments of junior ministers, the role of coalition agreements, and the adoption of conflict resolution and oversight mechanism. Also of interest is research that examines the management of government policy in the legislative arena, e.g., focusing on the role of legislative institutions in managing coalition conflict by providing oversight or as a forum for settling policy differences.

Title	Details
Electoral Rules and the Party Composition of Governments: Why are there Social Democratic and Liberal Welfare States?	View Paper Details
Estimating the Influence of Coalition Partners on Coalition Agreements using Wordfish and Wordscores	View Paper Details
The Dynamics of Political Agendas in Coalition Governments	View Paper Details
Coalition Agreements and Party Preferences: A Principal Components Analysis Approach	View Paper Details
Partisan Impact in Coalition Government	View Paper Details