Out of the Cabinet

What Drives Defections From the Government in Presidential Systems

Bibliographic Data

ID6244397
AuthorsCecilia Martinez-Gallardo (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Cecilia Martínez‐gallardo (0000-0002-3700-1037, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume45
Issue1
Pages62-90
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Political Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4140 • E-ISSN: 1552-3829
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0010414011421306
OpenAlexW2108903247
LanguageEN
Citations received65
References cited34

This article challenges a key part of the conventional view of coalitions in presidential systems that sees them as short-lived and ad hoc. The author shows instead that there is wide variation in the durability of governing coalitions across these regimes. She develops a theory of the incentives of parties to participate in the government and the circumstances under which scholars might expect to see the existing governing coalition break down. The author draws on data from 121 cabinets in 12 Latin American countries between the late 1980s and the mid-2000s to show that the dissolution of the cabinet is more likely when the president places less value on coalition building as a policy-making strategy and when parties find it costly to participate in the government. In particular, the author shows that strong unilateral institutional powers tend to diminish the incentives of presidents to compromise with other parties; in contrast, effective legislatures and high rates of approval for the executive contribute significantly to more stable governments

Cabinet (room · Compromise · Divided government · Economics · Executive branch · Government (linguistics · Incentive · Law and economics · Legislature · Market economy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Presidential system · Public economics · Value (mathematics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Politics and Society in Latin America · Public Administration · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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