
Florence So
Postdoctoral Fellow

The agenda-setting power of the prime minister party in coalition governments
Author
Summary, in English
Despite coalition governments being the most widespread form of government, many aspects of coalition politics are still poorly understood. This is especially true for questions relating to the role of the prime minister party within the coalition. Being the prime minister party seems to imply considerable influence, but little evidence actually exists as to the factors shaping the influence of the prime minister. This paper offers a new approach to studying the factors conditioning the influence of the prime minister party in a coalition. The approach is focused on the extent of issue overlap between the party manifesto of the prime minister party and the first government speech after the election. This approach makes it possible to actually analyze the factors shaping the influence of the prime minister party. The results show that the PM party is constrained by the issue emphasis of its coalition partners but less so when it holds dissolution power and more, also when it has many coalition partners when controlling for the seat share of the PM party. The paper, thus, both offers a new approach to study the coalition compromise and new evidence on the factors shaping the influence coming from holding the PM position.
Publishing year
2018
Language
English
Pages
743-756
Publication/Series
Political Research Quarterly
Volume
71
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Topic
- Political Science
Keywords
- coalition politics
- government speeches
- party manifestos
- dissolution power
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1938-274X