Hostname: page-component-7b9c58cd5d-7g5wt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-03-15T18:07:42.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coalition Policymaking and Legislative Review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2005

LANNY W. MARTIN  and
GEORG VANBERG
LANNY W. MARTIN
Affiliation:
Rice University
GEORG VANBERG
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Political scientists know remarkably little about the extent to which legislatures are able to influence policymaking in parliamentary democracies. In this article, we focus on the influence of legislative institutions in periods of coalition government. We show that multiparty governments are plagued by “agency” problems created by delegation to cabinet ministers that increase in severity on issues that divide the coalition. We also argue that the process of legislative review presents an important—but understudied—institutional opportunity for coalition partners to overcome these tensions. We evaluate our argument using original legislative data on over 300 government bills collected from two parliamentary democracies. The central implication of our findings is that legislatures play a more important role in parliamentary democracies than is usually appreciated by providing a key institutional mechanism that allows coalition partners with divergent preferences to govern successfully.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 99 , Issue 1 , February 2005 , pp. 93 - 106
Copyright
© 2005 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andeweg Rudy B., and Lia Nijzink. 1995. “Beyond the Two-Body Image: Relations between Ministers and MPs.” In Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe, ed. Herbert Döring. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Bagehot Walter. [1872] 1978. The English Constitution. Reprint. New York: Garland.
Bartels Larry M. 1996. “Pooling Disparate Observations.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (August): 905– 42.Google Scholar
Browne Eric, and Mark Franklin. 1973. “Aspects of Coalition Payoffs in European Parliamentary Systems.” American Political Science Review 67 (June): 453– 69.Google Scholar
Bryce Lord James. 1921. Modern Democracies. New York: Macmillan.
Carrubba Clifford J., and Craig Volden. 2000. “Coalitional Politics and Logrolling in Legislative Institutions.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (April): 261– 77.Google Scholar
Cox Gary W. 1987. The Efficient Secret. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Döring Herbert, ed. 1995. Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Gallagher Michael, Michael Laver, and Peter Mair. 2001. Representative Government in Modern Europe. 3rd ed. Boston: McGraw–Hill.
Gamm Gerald, and John D. Huber. 2002. “Legislatures as Political Institutions: Beyond the Contemporary Congress.” In Political Science: State of the Discipline, ed. Ira Katznelson and Helen V. Milner. New York: Norton.
Heller William B. 2001. “Making Policy Stick: Why the Government Gets What It Wants in Multiparty Parliaments.” American Journal of Political Science 45 (October): 780– 98.Google Scholar
Huber John D. 1996. “The Vote of Confidence in Parliamentary Democracies.” American Political Science Review 90 (June): 269– 82.Google Scholar
Huber John D., and Charles R. Shipan. 2002. Deliberate Discretion: The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Inter-Parliamentary Union. 1986. Parliaments of the World. 2nd ed. New York: Facts-on-File.
Janda Kenneth, Robert Harmel, Christine Edens, and Patricia Goff. 1995. “Changes in Party Identity.” Party Politics 1 (April): 171– 96.Google Scholar
Kiewiet D. Roderick, and Matthew McCubbins. 1991. The Logic of Delegation: Congressional Parties and the Appropriations Process. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
King Gary. 1989. Unifying Political Methodology: The Likelihood Theory of Statistical Inference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laver Michael, and W. Ben Hunt. 1992. Policy and Party Competition. New York: Routledge.
Laver Michael, and Kenneth A. Shepsle, eds. 1994. Cabinet Ministers and Parliamentary Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Laver Michael, and Kenneth A. Shepsle. 1996. Making and Breaking Governments. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lijphart Arend. 1999. Patterns of Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lupia Arthur and Mathew McCubbins. 2000. “Representation or Abdication? How Citizens Use Institutions to Help Delegation Succeed.” European Journal of Political Research 37 (May): 291– 307.Google Scholar
Maddala G. S. 1983. Limited-Dependent and Qualitative Variables in Econometrics. New York: McGraw–Hill.
Martin Lanny W., and Georg Vanberg. 2004. “Policing the Bargain: Coalition Government and Parliamentary Scrutiny.” American Journal of Political Science 48 (January): 13– 27.Google Scholar
Mattson Ingvar, and Kaare Strom. 1995. “Parliamentary Committees.” In Parliaments and Majority Rule in Western Europe, ed. Herbert Döring. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Müller Wolfgang C., and Kaare Strøm, eds. 2000. Coalition Governments in Western Europe. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Paterson William E., and David Southern. 1991. Governing Germany. New York: Norton.
Powell G. Bingham. 2000. Elections as Instruments of Democracy: Majoritarian and Proportional Visions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rasch Bjorn E. 2000. “Parliamentary Floor Voting Procedures and Agenda Setting in Europe.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 25 (February): 3– 23.Google Scholar
Saalfeld Thomas. 2000. “Members of Parliament and Governments in Western Europe: Agency Relations and Problems of Oversight.” European Journal of Political Research 37 (May): 353– 76.Google Scholar
Strøm Kaare. 1990. Minority Governments and Majority Rule. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Strøm Kaare. 2000. “Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies.” European Journal of Political Research 37 (May): 261– 90.Google Scholar
Strøm Kaare, and Wolfgang Müller. 2000. “The Keys to Togetherness—Coalition Agreements in Parliamentary Democracies.” In The Uneasy Relationships between Parliamentary Members and Leaders, ed. Lawrence Longley and Reuven Hazan. London: Frank Cass.
Thies Michael F. 2001. “Keeping Tabs on Partners: The Logic of Delegation in Coalition Governments.” American Journal of Political Science 45 (July): 580– 98.Google Scholar
Tomz Michael, Jason Wittenberg, and Gary King. 2003. “Clarify: Software for Interpreting and Presenting Statistical Results.” Stanford University. Typescript.
Volkens Andrea. 2001. “Manifesto Research Since 1979: From Reliability to Validity.” In Estimating the Policy Positions of Political Actors, ed. Michael Laver. London: Routledge.
Wheare K. C. 1963. Legislatures. London: Oxford.
Woldendorp Jaap, Hans Keman, and Ian Budge. 2000. Party Government in 48 Democracies (1945–1998). Amsterdam: Kluwer.
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.