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Policing the Bargain: Coalition Government and Parliamentary Scrutiny

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  • Lanny W. Martin
  • Georg Vanberg

Abstract

Policymaking by coalition governments creates a classic principal‐agent problem. Coalitions are comprised of parties with divergent preferences who are forced to delegate important policymaking powers to individual cabinet ministers, thus raising the possibility that ministers will attempt to pursue policies favored by their own party at the expense of their coalition partners. What is going to keep ministers from attempting to move policy in directions they favor rather than sticking to the “coalition deal”? We argue that parties will make use of parliamentary scrutiny of “hostile” ministerial proposals to overcome the potential problems of delegation and enforce the coalition bargain. Statistical analysis of original data on government bills in Germany and the Netherlands supports this argument. Our findings suggest that parliaments play a central role in allowing multiparty governments to solve intracoalition conflicts.

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  • Lanny W. Martin & Georg Vanberg, 2004. "Policing the Bargain: Coalition Government and Parliamentary Scrutiny," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(1), pages 13-27, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:amposc:v:48:y:2004:i:1:p:13-27
    DOI: 10.1111/j.0092-5853.2004.00053.x
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    1. Tomz, Michael & Wittenberg, Jason & King, Gary, 2003. "Clarify: Software for Interpreting and Presenting Statistical Results," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 8(i01).
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    1. repec:gig:joupla:v:6:y:2014:i:2:p:3-38 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Eligius M. T. Hendrix & Annelies Ridder & Agnieszka Rusinowska & M. Elena Sáiz, 2013. "Coalition Formation: The Role of Procedure and Policy Flexibility," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 407-427, May.
    3. Roni Lehrer & Gijs Schumacher, 2018. "Governator vs. Hunter and Aggregator: A simulation of party competition with vote-seeking and office-seeking rules," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(2), pages 1-23, February.
    4. Goodhart, Lucy, 2013. "Who Decides? Coalition Governance and Ministerial Discretion," Quarterly Journal of Political Science, now publishers, vol. 8(3), pages 205-237, June.
    5. Wehner, Joachim & de Renzio, Paolo, 2013. "Citizens, Legislators, and Executive Disclosure: The Political Determinants of Fiscal Transparency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 96-108.
    6. Torun Dewan & David P. Myatt, 2010. "The Declining Talent Pool of Government," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 267-286, April.
    7. Jana Paasch, 2022. "Revisiting Policy Preferences and Capacities in the EU: Multi‐level policy implementation in the subnational authorities," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(3), pages 783-800, May.
    8. Abel Bojar, 2018. "With a Little Help from My Friends: Ministerial Alignment and Public Spending Composition in Parliamentary Democracies," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 133, European Institute, LSE.
    9. John W. Budd & J. Ryan Lamare, 2021. "The Importance of Political Systems for Trade Union Membership, Coverage and Influence: Theory and Comparative Evidence," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 757-787, September.
    10. Thomas Winzen, 2013. "European integration and national parliamentary oversight institutions," European Union Politics, , vol. 14(2), pages 297-323, June.
    11. Manow, Philip & Zorn, Hendrik, 2004. "Office versus Policy Motives in Portfolio Allocation: The Case of Junior Ministers," MPIfG Discussion Paper 04/9, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. R. Aytimur, 2014. "Importance of status quo when lobbying a coalition government," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 203-219, August.
    13. Budd, John W. & Lamare, J. Ryan, 2021. "The importance of political systems for trade union membership, coverage and influence: theory and comparative evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 125307, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Alejandro Ecker & Thomas M. Meyer, 2019. "Fairness and qualitative portfolio allocation in multiparty governments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(3), pages 309-330, December.
    15. Göhrs, Max & Krott, Max & Hubo, Christiane, 2022. "Political parties as allies for the forestry sector: A case study from Germany," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    16. Daniel Finke & Annika Herbel, 2015. "Beyond rules and resources: Parliamentary scrutiny of EU policy proposals," European Union Politics, , vol. 16(4), pages 490-513, December.
    17. Tamer Četin & Feridun Yilmaz, 2010. "Transition to the Regulatory State in Turkey: Lessons from Energy," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(2), pages 393-402.
    18. Thomas M Meyer, 2012. "Dropping the unitary actor assumption: The impact of intra-party delegation on coalition governance," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 485-506, October.
    19. Thomas König & Bernd Luig, 2014. "Ministerial gatekeeping and parliamentary involvement in the implementation process of EU directives," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 160(3), pages 501-519, September.

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