Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:08:09.929Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Who Affects Government Declarations and Why? Contrasting the Left–Right Scale with the Welfare Dimension

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 November 2017

Fedra Negri Open the ORCID record for Fedra Negri [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A lively debate among students of parliamentary democracy concerns how coalition governments build their policy proposals. Some scholars maintain that government declarations mirror the position of the median party in parliament; others argue that these proposals better agree with the weighted mean of the coalition parties’ electoral promises. This article sheds light on this puzzle by investigating the role played by several political actors in shaping government declarations on two dimensions: the ideological left–right scale and a genuinely policy-based welfare scale. The results reveal that the agenda setters on the two dimensions do not coincide. On the left–right scale, the prime minister’s party plays a leading role. On the welfare scale, government declarations are affected by the party of the median legislator in parliament and by the parties of the labour and social affairs ministers. Furthermore, government declarations on the welfare dimension tend to drift rightwards with adverse economic conditions.

Keywords

government declarationselectoral manifestosideological congruencepolitical partiesleft–right scalewelfare policies
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 54 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 607 - 636
Copyright
© The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Fedra Negri is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Department of Social and Political Sciences, at the University of Milan. Contact email: fedra.negri@unimi.it.

References

Barnes, L. (2013), ‘Governments, Parties, Ministers: Their Effects on Tax Progressivity and Redistribution’, unpublished manuscript, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Baron, D.P. (1998), ‘Comparative Dynamics of Parliamentary Governments’, American Political Science Review, 92(3): 593–609.Google Scholar
Beck, N. and Katz, J.N. (1995), ‘What to Do (and Not to Do) with Time-Series-Cross-Section Data in Comparative Politics’, American Political Science Review, 89(3): 634–647.Google Scholar
Black, D. (1958), The Theory of Committees and Elections (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Budge, I. and Laver, M. (1992a), Coalition Theory, Government Policy and Party Policy’, in M. Laver and I. Budge (eds), Party Policy and Government Coalitions (New York: St Martin’s): 1–64.Google Scholar
Budge, I. and Laver, M. (1992b), ‘The Relationship Between Party and Coalition Policy in Europe: A Synthesis’, in M. Laver and I. Budge (eds), Party Policy and Government Coalitions (New York: St Martin’s): 409–464.Google Scholar
Budge, I., Klingemann, D.H., Volkens, A., Bara, J. and Tannenbaum, Z. (2001), Mapping Policy Preferences: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments 1945–1998 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Dahl, R. (2005 [1961]), Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City, New Edition with foreword by Douglas W. Rae (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Diermeier, D. and Feddersen, T.J. (1998), ‘Cohesion in Legislatures and the Vote of Confidence Procedure’, American Political Science Review, 92(3): 611–621.Google Scholar
Dolezal, M., Ennser-Jedenastik, L., Müller, W.C. et al. (2012), ‘The Life Cycle of Party Manifestos: The Austrian Case’, West European Politics, 35(4): 869–895.Google Scholar
Downs, A. (1957), An Economic Theory of Democracy (New York: Harper).Google Scholar
Gamson, W.A. (1961), ‘A Theory of Coalition Formation’, American Sociological Review, 26(3): 373–382.Google Scholar
Greene, Z. and Haber, M. (2014), ‘Leadership Competition and Disagreement at Party National Congresses’, British Journal of Political Science, 46(3): 611–632.Google Scholar
Grofman, B. (1982), ‘A Dynamic Model of Protocoalition Formation in Ideological “N” Space’, Behavioral Science, 27(1): 77–90.Google Scholar
Häusermann, S., Picot, G. and Geering, D. (2013), ‘Review Article: Rethinking Party Politics and the Welfare State: Recent Advances in the Literature’, British Journal of Political Science, 43(1): 221–240.Google Scholar
Hibbs, D. (1992), ‘Partisan Theory after Fifteen Years’, European Journal of Political Economy, 8(3): 361–373.Google Scholar
International Labor Organization (1964–70), Bulletin of Labor Statistics (Geneva: International Labor Office).Google Scholar
International Labor Organization (1946–63), International Labor Review: Vols 51–88 (Geneva: International Labor Office).Google Scholar
International Monetary Fund (1970–90), International Financial Statistics: Vols 23–43 (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund).Google Scholar
King, G., Honaker, J., Joseph, A. and Scheve, K. (2001), ‘Analyzing Incomplete Political Science Data: An Alternative Algorithm for Multiple Imputation’, American Political Science Review, 95(1): 49–69.Google Scholar
Laver, M. and Budge, I. (1992), Party Policy and Government Coalitions (New York: St Martin’s).Google Scholar
Laver, M. and Shepsle, K.A. (1996), Making and Breaking Governments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Lowi, T. (1972), ‘Four Systems of Policy, Politics, and Choice’, Public Administration Review, 32(4): 298–310.Google Scholar
Martin, L.V. and Vanberg, G. (2014), ‘Parties and Policymaking in Multiparty Governments: The Legislative Median, Ministerial Autonomy, and the Coalition Compromise’, American Journal of Political Science, 58(4): 979–996.Google Scholar
McDonald, M. and Budge, I. (2005), Elections, Parties, Democracy: Conferring the Median Mandate (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Müller, W.C. and Strøm, K. (2003), Coalition Governments in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1990), OECD Main Economic Indicators: Historical Statistics 1969–88 (Paris: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).Google Scholar
Pierson, P. (1994), Dismantling the Welfare State? Reagan, Thatcher and the Politics of Retrenchment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Powell, G.B. Jr. (2005), ‘The Chain of Responsiveness’, in L. Diamond and L. Morlino (eds), Assessing the Quality of Democracy (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press): 62–76.Google Scholar
Powell, G.B. Jr. (2009), ‘The Ideological Congruence Controversy: The Impact of Alternative Measures, Data, and Time Periods on the Effects of Election Rules’, Comparative Political Studies, 42(12): 1475–1497.Google Scholar
Ray, L. (2007), ‘Validity of Measured Party Positions on European Integration: Assumptions, Approaches, and a Comparison of Alternative Measures’, Electoral Studies, 26(1): 11–22.Google Scholar
Seki, K. and Williams, L.K. (2014), ‘Updating the Party Government Data Set’, Electoral Studies, 34: 270–279.Google Scholar
Strøm, K., Müller, W.C. and Bergman, T. (2008), Cabinets and Coalition Bargaining: The Democratic Life Cycle in Western Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Tsebelis, G. (2002), Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work (Princeton: Princeton University Press): 187–206.Google Scholar
United Nations (1947–90), U.N. Monthly Bulletin of Statistics: Vols 1–44 (New York: United Nations Statistical Office).Google Scholar
Volkens, A., Lehmann, P., Merz, N., Regel, S., Werner, A. and Schultze, H. (2014), The Manifesto Data Collection. Manifesto Project (MRG/CMP/MARPOR). Version 2014b (Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung).Google Scholar
Warwick, P.V. (2001), ‘Coalition Policy in Parliamentary Democracies: Who Gets How Much and Why’, Comparative Political Studies, 34(10): 1212–1236.Google Scholar
Warwick, P.V. (2011), ‘Voters, Parties, and Declared Government Policy’, Comparative Political Studies, 44(12): 1675–1699.Google Scholar
Wilson, S.E. and Butler, D. (2007), ‘A Lot More to Do: The Sensitivity of Time-Series Cross-Section Analyses to Simple Alternative Specifications’, Political Analysis, 15(2): 101–123.Google Scholar
Woldendorp, J., Keman, H. and Budge, I. (2000), Party Government in 20 Democracies, 1945–1998 (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers).Google Scholar