Soliciting Expertise from Colleagues: Ministerial Collaboration in Germany

Devising viable policy solutions regularly requires that governments solicit intelligence from different sources of expertise. In parliamentary democracies, this means that multiple ministries are frequently expected to collaborate on legislative projects – either because policy issues are inherently cross-sectional, such as environmental matters, or because ministerial portfolios have been purposely designed to encourage inter-ministerial cooperation. We analyze to what extent cabinets live up to this expectation and indeed draw on the available expertise of multiple ministries to formulate policies. Our theoretical explanation for ministerial collaboration rest on three pillars: Administratively, joint ministerial efforts are more likely in policy areas that do not align with the portfolio structure, but touch upon the stakes of several ministries. Substantially, ministerial collaboration is more prevalent on projects that address salient policy issues. Lastly, concerning political leadership, ministries led by strong ministers are more reluctant to engage in cooperation, because strong politicians can successfully fend off interference from their cabinet peers. We investigate these claims drawing on information about ministerial collaboration on all legislative projects sponsored by German governments, which we connect to recently elicited data on the distribution of policy responsibilities among German ministries from 1970 until today. Given that ministries imprint their own perspective on legislation, our results are beyond administrative pedantries, but have substantial implications for the type and content of policies governments formulate.