Kaare Strøm, Wolfgang C. Müller and Torbjörn Bergman (Eds.)

 
  Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining  
  The Democractic Life Cycle in Western Europe vergrößerte Ansicht in neuem Fenster  
  Comparative Politics  
  464 p., Oxford : Oxford Univ. Press, 2008  
  ISBN 978-0-19-829786-4 (hardback)  

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Contents

Notes on Contributors

Abstract

Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining: The Democratic Life Cycle in Western Europe provides a comprehensive analysis of coalition politics in Western Europe over the post-war period. It champions a dynamic approach in which the various stages in the life of coalitions influence each other. After a review of the literature a theory chapter addresses the roles of bargaining and transaction costs in coalition governance. Eight comparative chapters address the topics of government formation (government type, formation duration), coalition agreements, portfolio allocation, conflict management, cabinet termination and duration, and the electoral consequences of coalition government. The book is based on the most comprehensive data set ever employed in coalition studies that includes both coalitional and single-party countries and governments. Each chapter first provides a comparative overview of the phenomenon under study and then moves on to state-of-the art statistical analysis. Conceptually and in the statistical analysis the study argues for an integrated approach stressing the relevance of countries, time, 'structural attributes', actors' preferences, institutions, the coalition's bargaining environment, and 'critical events'. Indeed, sufficient explanations of most phenomena under study require independent variables from several of these categories.

Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Notes of Contributors

1. Coalition Theory and Cabinet Governance: An Introduction
Wolfgang C. Müller, Torbjörn Bergman, and Kaare Strøm

2. Bargaining, Transaction Costs, and Coalition Governance
Arthur Lupia and Kaare Strøm

3. The Empirical Study of Cabinet Governance
Torbjörn Bergman, Elisabeth R. Gerber, Scott Kastner, and Benjamin Nyblade

4. Uncertainty and Complexity in Cabinet Formation
Lieven De Winter and Patrick Dumont

5. Coalition Agreements and Cabinet Governance
Wolfgang C. Müller and Kaare Strøm

6. Government Formation and Cabinet Type in Parliamentary Democracies
Paul Mitchell and Benjamin Nyblade

7. Portfolio Allocation
Luca Verzichelli

8. Conflict Management in Coalition Government
Rudy B. Andeweg and Arco Timmerman

9. Cabinet Termination in Western Europe
Erik Damgaard

10. Institutions, Chance and Choices: The Dynamics of Cabinet Survival in the Parliamentary Democracies of Western Europe (1945-1999)
Thomas Saalfeld

11. Coalition Membership and Electoral Performance
Hanne Marthe Narud and Henry Valen

12. Conclusion: Cabinet Governance in Parliamentary Democracies
Kaare Strøm, Torbjörn Bergman, Wolfgang C. Müller, and Benjamin Nyblade

Index

 

Notes on Contributors

Rudy B. Andeweg is professor of political science at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

Torbjörn Bergman is professor of political science at Umeå University, Sweden.

Erik Damgaard is professor of political science at the University of Aarhus, Denmark.

Lieven De Winter is professor of political science at the Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

Patrick Dumont is researcher at the Universite du Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

Elisabeth R. Gerber is professor of political science at the University of Michigan, USA.

Scott Kastner is assistant professor of political science at the University of Maryland, USA.

Arthur Lupia is professor of political science at the University of Michigan, USA.

Paul Mitchell is lecturer in political science at LSE, Great Britain.

Wolfgang C. Müller is professor of political science at the University of Mannheim, Germany.

Hanne Marthe Narud is professor of political science at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Benjamin Nyblade is assistant professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.

Thomas Saalfeld is reader in political science at the University of Kent at Canterbury, Great Britain.

Kaare Strøm is professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, USA.

Arco Timmermans is lecturer in political science at the University of Leiden, the Netherlands.

Henry Valen was professor emeritus of political science at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Luca Verzichelli is professor of political science at the University of Siena, Italy.