Pre-Electoral Alliances, Coalition Rejections, and Multiparty Governments

Dr. Marc Debus

doi:10.5771/9783845203898

Summary

Governing in coalitions is a central research field in comparative political science. This book explores how pre-electoral alliances and rejections of potential coalitions influence party competition and coalition politics in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. The study shows that in contrast to the classical perspective, coalition politics is determined not only by ideological diversity, but also by institutional and behaviouralist factors. Therefore, the goal of the theoretical part of the book is to combine historical analysis of party competition with theories on coalition formation. The empirical analysis is based on data from a content analysis of around 300 programmatic documents. Beside a descriptive analysis of the policy-area specific positions of each party and an evaluation of the determinants of coalition formation, the payoff structure in coalition governments is under consideration. The analysis reveals that “key parties” receive a surpassing share of both office and policy payoffs.

The author Dr. Marc Debus is a research assistant at the University of Constance, Germany. His research focuses on the analysis of party competition, coalition politics and voting behaviour in a comparative perspective.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2007
Copyright year: 2007
ISBN-Print: 978-3-8329-2908-4
ISBN-Online: 978-3-8452-0389-8
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Language: English
Pages: 228
Product type: Book Titles

Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis No access Pages 2 - 4 Marc Debus
Vorwort No access Pages 5 - 10 Marc Debus
List of Abbreviations No access Pages 11 - 14 Marc Debus
1. Research questions, theoretical framework and results of the study No access Pages 15 - 19 Marc Debus
2. Case selection No access Pages 19 - 21 Marc Debus
3. Applied method No access Pages 21 - 21 Marc Debus
4. Covered policy dimensions No access Pages 21 - 23 Marc Debus
5. Plan of the study No access Pages 23 - 24 Marc Debus
1. 1. Historical development and cultural constraints on Irish coalition politics No access Pages 25 - 36 Marc Debus
  2. Institutional constraints on Irish party competition and coalition politics No access Pages 36 - 39 Marc Debus
2. 1. Historical development and cultural constraints on German coalition politics No access Pages 39 - 47 Marc Debus
  2. Institutional constraints on party competition and coalition politics in Germany No access Pages 47 - 52 Marc Debus
3. 1. Historical development and cultural constraints on Austrian coalition politics No access Pages 52 - 58 Marc Debus
  2. Institutional constraints on Austrian party competition and coalition politics No access Pages 58 - 61 Marc Debus
4. 1. Historical development and cultural constraints on Dutch coalition politics No access Pages 61 - 71 Marc Debus
  2. Institutional constraints on Dutch party competition and coalition politics No access Pages 71 - 75 Marc Debus
5. 1. Historical development and cultural constraints on Belgian coalition politics No access Pages 75 - 85 Marc Debus
  2. Institutional constraints on Belgian party competition and coalition politics No access Pages 85 - 89 Marc Debus
6. Comparative perspective and open questions No access Pages 89 - 89 Marc Debus
1. Coalition formation, assertiveness and tactical programmatic positioning as patterns of coalition politics No access Pages 90 - 94 Marc Debus
2. Theories of coalition formation and the pay-off structure in coalition governments No access Pages 94 - 98 Marc Debus
3. Multidimensional models of party competition and coalition formation No access Pages 98 - 104 Marc Debus
4. Approaches in analysing payoffs in coalition governments No access Pages 104 - 107 Marc Debus
5. 1. The institutional perspective No access Pages 107 - 112 Marc Debus
  2. The behaviouralist perspective No access Pages 112 - 118 Marc Debus
6. Bringing office-, policy- and (semi-)institutional perspectives together: an extended model of coalition politics No access Pages 118 - 131 Marc Debus
1. 1. Analysis of roll call voting No access Pages 132 - 133 Marc Debus
  2. Position extraction from elite studies and regular surveys No access Pages 133 - 134 Marc Debus
  3. Expert surveys No access Pages 134 - 136 Marc Debus
  4. Analysis of policy documents No access Pages 136 - 141 Marc Debus
  5. Wordscore – combining expert judgements with computer-aided content analysis No access Pages 141 - 147 Marc Debus
2. 1. Social democratic and moderate socialist parties No access Pages 147 - 150 Marc Debus
  2. Christian democratic and Christian social parties No access Pages 150 - 153 Marc Debus
  3. Liberal parties No access Pages 153 - 155 Marc Debus
  4. Green parties No access Pages 155 - 157 Marc Debus
  5. Parties from the “old” and “new left” No access Pages 157 - 158 Marc Debus
  6. Right-wing populist parties No access Pages 158 - 161 Marc Debus
1. Coalition formation No access Pages 162 - 177 Marc Debus
2. Programmatic positions and issue saliency of coalition agreements No access Pages 177 - 181 Marc Debus
3. Which parties are pivotal? No access Pages 181 - 185 Marc Debus
4. 1. Policy assertion potential No access Pages 185 - 190 Marc Debus
  2. Patterns of office allocation No access Pages 190 - 194 Marc Debus
5. Tactical programmatic behaviour of political parties No access Pages 194 - 200 Marc Debus
1. Summary of the findings No access Pages 201 - 203 Marc Debus
2. Incentives for future research No access Pages 203 - 206 Marc Debus
References No access Pages 207 - 228 Marc Debus