AbstractCabinets 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. ContentsList of Figures 1. Coalition Theory and Cabinet Governance: An Introduction 2. Bargaining, Transaction Costs, and Coalition Governance 3. The Empirical Study of Cabinet Governance Lieven De Winter and Patrick Dumont 5. Coalition Agreements and Cabinet Governance 6. Government Formation and Cabinet Type in Parliamentary Democracies 7. Portfolio Allocation 8. Conflict Management in Coalition Government 9. Cabinet Termination in Western Europe 10. Institutions, Chance and Choices: The Dynamics of Cabinet Survival in the Parliamentary
Democracies of Western Europe (1945-1999) 11. Coalition Membership and Electoral Performance 12. Conclusion: Cabinet Governance in Parliamentary Democracies Index
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. |