IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v164y2015i1p117-133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Keeping the party together

Author

Listed:
  • Hande Mutlu-Eren

Abstract

Under what conditions do political parties split? This paper presents a model of intra-party politics to explain party unity in parliamentary systems. The theory derived from an incomplete information game predicts that parties split with positive probability, which rises with the cost of dissent following a failed attempt to split and falls with the cost of forming a new party. Party unity also is predicted to be high when the leadership faction’s weight within the party is large. The model’s results have implications for the relationship between party unity and the majority status of the government party, party system polarization as well as intra-party polarization. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Hande Mutlu-Eren, 2015. "Keeping the party together," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 117-133, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:164:y:2015:i:1:p:117-133
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-015-0277-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11127-015-0277-4
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-015-0277-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rafael Hortala-Vallve & Hannes Mueller, 2015. "Primaries: the unifying force," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 163(3), pages 289-305, June.
    2. Levy, Gilat, 2004. "A model of political parties," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 250-277, April.
    3. Baron, David P., 1991. "A Spatial Bargaining Theory of Government Formation in Parliamentary Systems," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 85(1), pages 137-164, March.
    4. COX, GARY W. & ROSENBLUTH, FRANCES McCALL & THIES, MICHAEL F., 1999. "Electoral Reform and the Fate of Factions: The Case of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 33-56, January.
    5. Mair, Peter, 1990. "The Electoral Payoffs of Fission and Fusion," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 131-142, January.
    6. John W. Patty, 2008. "Equilibrium Party Government," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(3), pages 636-655, July.
    7. John M. Carey, 2007. "Competing Principals, Political Institutions, and Party Unity in Legislative Voting," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(1), pages 92-107, January.
    8. Michael Laver & Kenneth Benoit, 2003. "The Evolution of Party Systems between Elections," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 47(2), pages 215-233, April.
    9. Ceron, Andrea, 2015. "The Politics of Fission: An Analysis of Faction Breakaways among Italian Parties (1946–2011)," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(1), pages 121-139, January.
    10. Massimo Morelli, 2004. "Party Formation and Policy Outcomes under Different Electoral Systems," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 71(3), pages 829-853.
    11. Tavits, Margit, 2008. "Party Systems in the Making: The Emergence and Success of New Parties in New Democracies," British Journal of Political Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 38(1), pages 113-133, January.
    12. Jackson, Matthew O. & Moselle, Boaz, 2002. "Coalition and Party Formation in a Legislative Voting Game," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 103(1), pages 49-87, March.
    13. McCarty, Nolan & Poole, Keith T. & Rosenthal, Howard, 2001. "The Hunt for Party Discipline in Congress," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 95(3), pages 673-687, September.
    14. Kato, Junko, 1998. "When the Party Breaks Up: Exit and Voice among Japanese Legislators," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 92(4), pages 857-870, December.
    15. Jon X. Eguia, 2011. "Endogenous Parties in an Assembly," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(1), pages 16-26, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Özge Kemahlıoğlu & Sabri Sayarı, 2017. "Defecting alone or splitting together? Individual and collective party switching by legislators," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 187-206, April.
    2. Crutzen, Benoît S.Y. & Flamand, Sabine, 2023. "Leaders, factions and the determinants of electoral success," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jon X. Eguia, 2013. "The Origin of Parties: The United States Congress in 1789–1797 as a Test Case," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(3), pages 313-334, November.
    2. Antonio Merlo, 2005. "Whither Political Economy? Theories, Facts and Issues," PIER Working Paper Archive 05-033, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania, revised 01 Dec 2005.
    3. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Mandar Oak, 2022. "Party Formation and Coalitional Bargaining in a Model of Proportional Representation," Games, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-17, June.
    4. 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.
    5. Pech, Gerald, 2012. "Intra-party decision making, party formation, and moderation in multiparty systems," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 14-22.
    6. Motz, Nicolas, 2023. "A career like no one else can offer: On the conditions for two-party dominance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Eguia, Jon X., 2011. "Voting blocs, party discipline and party formation," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 73(1), pages 111-135, September.
    8. Bandyopadhyay, Siddhartha & Oak, Mandar P., 2008. "Coalition governments in a model of parliamentary democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 554-561, September.
    9. Mattozzi, Andrea & Merlo, Antonio, 2008. "Political careers or career politicians?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3-4), pages 597-608, April.
    10. Mattozzi, Andrea & Merlo, Antonio, 2015. "Mediocracy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 32-44.
    11. Mihir Bhattacharya, 2024. "A citizen-candidate model of party formation," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 299-325, September.
    12. William B. Heller & Carol Mershon, 2008. "Dealing in Discipline: Party Switching and Legislative Voting in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1988–2000," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 52(4), pages 910-925, October.
    13. Dotti, Valerio, 2019. "Political Parties and Policy Outcomes. Do Parties Block Reforms?," MPRA Paper 100227, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Hughes, Niall, 2016. "Voting in legislative elections under plurality rule," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 51-93.
    15. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Kalyan Chatterjee & Tomas Sjöström, 2013. "Pre-electoral Coalitions and Post-election Bargaining," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Bargaining in the Shadow of the Market Selected Papers on Bilateral and Multilateral Bargaining, chapter 7, pages 129-181, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    16. Motz, Nicolas, 2016. "How Political Parties Shape Electoral Competition," MPRA Paper 69351, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Peeters, R.J.A.P. & Saran, R.R.S. & Yüksel, A.M., 2010. "Strategic party formation on a circle," Research Memorandum 045, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    18. Jon Eguia, 2012. "A spatial theory of party formation," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 49(3), pages 549-570, April.
    19. Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay & Kalyan Chatterjee & Tomas Sjöström, 2013. "Pre-electoral Coalitions and Post-election Bargaining," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Bargaining in the Shadow of the Market Selected Papers on Bilateral and Multilateral Bargaining, chapter 7, pages 129-181, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Ronald Peeters & Rene Saran & Ayşe Müge Yüksel, 2016. "Strategic party formation on a circle and Duverger’s Law," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 47(3), pages 729-759, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:164:y:2015:i:1:p:117-133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.