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

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