Cabinet Co-sponsorship Networks in Multiparty Presidential Systems

We know very little, if anything at all, about cooperation among government coalition members within the executive branch in multiparty presidential systems. Are ministers active participants in the elaboration of the agenda, sharing its authorship with colleagues from different parties? We develop a theory of ministerial participation in the authorship of legislative bills and explore these issues by investigating the structure of legislative bill co-sponsorship networks among cabinet members in Brazil from 1995 to 2010. We provide evidence of the active roll ministers’ play in authoring the government’s legislative agenda, often engaging in networks with ministers with different status (core and periphery). Hence, we shed light on how bill making is actually done within the Executive Branch in presidential systems with institutionally powerful presidents and that rely on coalitions to govern.