The distribution of individual cabinet positions in coalition governments: A sequential approach
- Author(s)
- Alejandro Ecker, Thomas Meyer, Wolfgang Claudius Müller
- Abstract
Multiparty government in parliamentary democracies entails bargaining over the payoffs of government participation, in particular the allocation of cabinet positions. While most of the literature deals with the numerical distribution of cabinet seats among government parties, this article explores the distribution of individual portfolios. It argues that coalition negotiations are sequential choice processes that begin with the allocation of those portfolios most important to the bargaining parties. This induces conditionality in the bargaining process as choices of individual cabinet positions are not independent of each other. Linking this sequential logic with party preferences for individual cabinet positions, the authors of the article study the allocation of individual portfolios for 146 coalition governments in Western and Central Eastern Europe. The results suggest that a sequential logic in the bargaining process results in better predictions than assuming mutual independence in the distribution of individual portfolios.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Government
- Journal
- European Journal of Political Research
- Volume
- 54
- Pages
- 802-818
- No. of pages
- 17
- ISSN
- 0304-4130
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12108
- Publication date
- 11-2015
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 506014 Comparative politics
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sociology and Political Science
- Portal url
- https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/the-distribution-of-individual-cabinet-positions-in-coalition-governments-a-sequential-approach(6cc14620-923c-4c99-9c51-58c8c1339310).html