Governing in coalitions is a central research field in comparative political science. This book explores how pre-electoral alliances and rejections of potential coalitions influence party competition and coalition politics in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands. The study shows that in contrast to the classical perspective, coalition politics is determined not only by ideological diversity, but also by institutional and behaviouralist factors. Therefore, the goal of the theoretical part of the book is to combine historical analysis of party competition with theories on coalition formation. The empirical analysis is based on data from a content analysis of around 300 programmatic documents. Beside a descriptive analysis of the policy-area specific positions of each party and an evaluation of the determinants of coalition formation, the payoff structure in coalition governments is under consideration. The analysis reveals that “key parties” receive a surpassing share of both office and policy payoffs.
The author Dr. Marc Debus is a research assistant at the University of Constance, Germany. His research focuses on the analysis of party competition, coalition politics and voting behaviour in a comparative perspective.
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