About the Book
Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining: The Democratic Life Cycle in Western Europe provides a comprehensive analysis of coalition politics in Western Europe over the post-1945 period. It champions a dynamic approach using bargaining and transaction cost theory to understand the 'life cycle' of parliamentary politics. After a review of the literature the theory chapter addresses the roles of bargaining and transaction costs in coalition governance. Eight
comparative chapters address the topics of government formation, cabinet membership, coalition agreements, portfolio allocation, conflict management, cabinet termination and duration, and the electoral consequences of
coalition politics. The book is based on the most comprehensive data set ever employed in coalition studies, which includes both coalitional and single-party countries and governments. Each chapter provides a comparative overview of its topic and state-of-the art statistical analysis. Conceptually and empirically the study argues for an integrated approach to coalition politics, stressing six clusters of explanatory factors: country-specific and temporal circumstances, 'structural attributes',
actors' preferences, institutions, the bargaining environment, and 'critical events'. While the importance of different causal factors varies between the various phases of the parliamentary life cycle,
no facet of coalition politics can be understood without reference to several of these factors.Comparative Politics is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editors are David M. Farrell, Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics and Head of School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester and Alfio Mastropaolo, University of Turin. The
series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.
Table of Contents:
1: Wolfgang C. Müller, Torbjörn Bergman, and Kaare Strøm: Coalition Theory and Cabinet Governance: An Introduction
2: Arthur Lupia and Kaare Strøm: Bargaining, Transaction Costs, and Coalition Governance
3: Torbjörn Bergman, Elisabeth R. Gerber, Scott Kastner, and Benjamin Nyblade: The Empirical Study of Cabinet Governance
4: Lieven De Winter and Patrick Dumont: Uncertainty and Complexity in Cabinet Formation
5: Wolfgang C. Müller and Kaare Strøm: Coalition Agreements and Cabinet Governance
6: Paul Mitchell and Benjamin Nyblade: Government Formation and Cabinet Type in Parliamentary Democracies
7: Luca Verzichelli: Portfolio Allocation
8: Rudy B. Andeweg and Arco Timmerman: Conflict Management in Coalition Government
9: Erik Damgaard: Cabinet Termination in Western Europe
10: Thomas Saalfeld: Institutions, Chance and Choices: The Dynamics of Cabinet Survival in the Parliamentary Democracies of Western Europe (1945-1999)
11: Hanne Marthe Narud and Henry Valen: Coalition Membership and Electoral Performance
12: Kaare Strøm, Torbjörn Bergman, Wolfgang C. Müller, and Benjamin Nyblade: Conclusion: Cabinet Governance in Parliamentary Democracies
About the Author :
Kaare Stromn is a Professor in Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Minority Government and Majority Rule; co-editor of Challenges to Political Parties, Policy, Office or Votes?, Coalition Governments in Western Europe, Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies, and the textbook Comparative Politics Today: A World View. He has published numerous articles in such
scholarly journals as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and the European Journal of Political Research. He has received the American Political Science Association's Franklin Burdette Pi Sigma
Alpha Award for best conference paper (1983), the Gabriel Almond Award for best dissertation in Comparative Politics (1984), and UNESCO's Sixth Stein Rokkan Prize in Comparative Social Science Research (1994). Wolfgang C. Müller is a Professor in Comparative Government at the University of Mannheim and former Director of the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES). Previously he taught at the Universities of Vienna, Humboldt University Berlin, University of California, San
Diego, Institute d'Études Politiques de Lille and was Academic Visitor, Nuffield College, Research Fellow University of Bergen, and Joseph A. Schumpeter Fellow at Harvard University. His book publications
include Policy, Office, or Votes? How Political Parties in Western Europe Make Hard Decisions (co-ed. with Kaare Strøm, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), Coalition Governments in Western Europe (co-ed. with Kaare Strøm, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000),Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies (co-ed. with Kaare Strøm and Torbjörn Bergman, Oxford University Press, 2003). Torbjörn Bergman is a Professor
in Political Science at the University of Umea. He has been a visiting scholar at the University of Californa, San Diego and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His book publications include Delegation and Accountability in European Integration:
The Nordic Parliamentary Democracies and the European Union (co-edited with Erik Damgaard, London: Frank Cass, 2000), Delegation and Accountability in Parliamentary Democracies (co-ed. with Kaare Strøm and Wolfgang C. Müller, Oxford University Press, 2003), and Democratic Institutions in Decline? (co-edited with Kaare Strøm, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2008). His articles have appeared in journals such as European
Journal of Political Research, Journal of European Public Policy, Government and Opposition, Party Politics, and Scandinavian Political Studies.
