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The Formation of Cabinet Coalitions in Presidential Systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Johannes Freudenreich
Johannes Freudenreich*
Affiliation:
Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft at the University of Munich. [email protected]
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Abstract

Cabinet coalitions are central to the functioning of Latin American presidential systems. However, the reasons for their formation remain unclear. While recent studies suggest that presidents invite parties to the cabinet to facilitate governability and lawmaking, this study argues that the composition of cabinet coalitions is largely predetermined by commitments made before presidential elections. To analyze this argument, the study introduces the conditional logit model as a new empirical strategy for modeling cabinet choice under this type of regime. Based on a new dataset of 107 cabinets in 13 Latin American democracies, the study shows that pre-electoral commitments strongly affect cabinet formation and thereby also confound the relationship between cabinet formation and governability.

Type
Research
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , Winter 2016 , pp. 80 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2016

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