Florence So
Postdoc
The agenda-setting power of the prime minister party in coalition governments
Författare
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.
Publiceringsår
2018
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
743-756
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Political Research Quarterly
Volym
71
Issue
4
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
SAGE Publications
Ämne
- Political Science
Nyckelord
- coalition politics
- government speeches
- party manifestos
- dissolution power
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1938-274X