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Parties and Policymaking in Multiparty Governments: The Legislative Median, Ministerial Autonomy, and the Coalition Compromise

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  • Lanny W. Martin
  • Georg Vanberg

Abstract

In parliamentary democracies, governments are typically composed of multiple political parties working together in a coalition. Such governments must confront a fundamental challenge in policymaking—the preferences of coalition parties often diverge significantly, but the government can adopt only one common policy on any specific issue. This fact raises a critical question that has far‐reaching implications for the quality of democratic representation: Whose preferences are ultimately reflected in coalition policy choices? In this study, we explore three competing answers to this question derived from the theoretical literature on multiparty governance and parliamentary institutions. Our findings, based on an analysis of the legislative history of more than 1,000 government bills from three parliamentary democracies, strongly suggest that coalition policies reflect a compromise between government parties rather than the preferences of the ministers proposing them or the preferences of the median party in the legislature.

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  • Lanny W. Martin & Georg Vanberg, 2014. "Parties and Policymaking in Multiparty Governments: The Legislative Median, Ministerial Autonomy, and the Coalition Compromise," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(4), pages 979-996, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:58:y:2014:i:4:p:979-996
    DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12099
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    Cited by:

    1. Gershkov, Alex & Kleiner, Andreas & Moldovanu, Benny & Shi, Xianwen, 2023. "Voting with interdependent values: The Condorcet winner," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 193-208.
    2. Daniel Devine & Raimondas Ibenskas, 2021. "From convergence to congruence: European integration and citizen–elite congruence," European Union Politics, , vol. 22(4), pages 676-699, December.
    3. Alex Gershkov & Andreas Kleiner & Benny Moldovanu & Xianwen Shi, 2019. "The Art of Compromising: Voting with Interdependent Values and the Flag of the Weimar Republic," Working Papers tecipa-645, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    4. Ghalke, Avinash & Sensarma, Rudra & Chakraborty, Sandip & Kakani, Ram Kumar, 2023. "Stock markets and economic uncertainty: Roles of legislative sessions and coalition strength," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    5. Cervellati, Matteo & Gulino, Giorgio & Roberti, Paolo, 2022. "Random Power to Parties and Policies in Coalition Governments," CEPR Discussion Papers 14906, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    6. Valerio Dotti, 2021. "Reaching across the aisle to block reforms," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 72(2), pages 533-578, September.
    7. Abel Bojar, 2018. "With a Little Help from My Friends: Ministerial Alignment and Public Spending Composition in Parliamentary Democracies," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 133, European Institute, LSE.
    8. Brück, Florian & Fermanian, Jean-David & Min, Aleksey, 2023. "A corrected Clarke test for model selection and beyond," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 235(1), pages 105-132.
    9. Or Tuttnauer, 2018. "If you can beat them, confront them: Party-level analysis of opposition behavior in European national parliaments," European Union Politics, , vol. 19(2), pages 278-298, June.
    10. Lanny W. Martin & Georg Vanberg, 2020. "Coalition Government, Legislative Institutions, and Public Policy in Parliamentary Democracies," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(2), pages 325-340, April.
    11. Xu, Kai & Hitt, Michael A. & Brock, David & Pisano, Vincenzo & Huang, Lulu S.R., 2021. "Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).

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