Comparative Government-Chapter 11

presidents are likely to appoint cabinets that look like a parliamentary cabinet if

1. have weak decree power 2. their party in the legislature is small and exhibit low levels of party discipline (more partisan ministers and a more proportional allocation of cabinet portfolios because they rely on winning the support of opposition parties to pass their policies)

minority governments are more likely in countries where

1. opposition parties are able to strongly influence policy 2. interest group relations are organized along corporatist lines 3. there are no formal investiture vote requirements

Countries are classified as democratic if

1. the chief executive is elected 2. the legislature is elected 3. there is more than one party competing in elections 4. there has been an alternation of power under identical electoral rules

once a cabinet has been formed

1. the support of the legislative majority may or may not have to demonstrated by a formal investiture vote. 2. if the investiture vote is unsuccessful then the government formation process starts all over again, there may or may not be a new election before this happens 3. If the investiture vote is successful then the head of state appoints the cabinet nominated by the formateur to office 4. at this point the government is free to rule until it is defeated in a vote of no confidence, or a new election is called

end of a government when

1. there is any change in the set of parties holding cabinet membership 2. there is any change in the identity of the prime minister 3. there has been a general election

single-party majority government

a government in which a single party controls a legislative majority

cohabitation

a president from one political bloc and a prime minister from another occurs when the party of the president does not control a majority in the legislature

presidential democracies will have fewer partisan ministers

and lower cabinet proportionally than parliamentary ones

Mixed democracies

are democracies in which both the legislature and the president can remove the government

Parliamentary democracies

are democracies in which only the legislature can remove the government

Presidential democracies

are democracies in which the legislature cannot remove the government

democracies in which the government is responsible to both legislature and an independently elected president

are mixed

democracies in which the government is responsible only to the legislature

are parliamentary

Martin and Vanberg

argue that delays are caused by complexity in the bargaining environment

Diermeier and Van Roozendaal

argue that delays are caused by uncertainty regarding the preferences of the parties involved in the formation process

Strom

argued that minority governments should be seen as a normal and democratic outcome of party competition in parliamentary regimes

minority government can only exist

as long as the opposition chooses not to bring it down -there must be an implicit majority in the legislature that supports it -becomes difficult for voters to know who is responsible for policy and to hold them accountable for it

investiture

captures whether there is a formal investiture vote or not

in parliamentary democracies

citizens do not elect the prime minister or cabinet members, only members of legislature

Strom

claims that minority governments are more likely in countries in which nongovernmental (opposition) parties have a strong say over policy -the more powerful a country's committee system and the greater the influence of the opposition in it, the lower the incentive for opposition parties to enter government, because they can shape policy without actually being in the cabinet

vote transfer instructions

clear instructions on how to rank candidates so that the flow of preferences will benefit the party if it is running separate or the coalition if a pre-electoral agreement is in place

cabinet

composed of ministers whose job it is to be in the cabinet and head the various government departments

portfolio coalition

composed of those legislatures belonging to parties in the cabinet

government in a mixed democracy

comprises a prime minister and a cabinet. The executive branch comprises the government and a president, the president is a part of executive branch but not government.

The government in a parliamentary democracy

comprises of a prime minister and the cabinet

government in a presidential democracy

compromises the president and the cabinet

minister's portfolio

department of which the minister is head

Investiture vote requirements

diminish the average government duration

governments in presidential systems

do not have to maintain majority legislative support as cabinets do in order to remain in office in parliamentary systems

informateur

examines politically feasible coalitions and nominates the formateur -supposed to lack personal political ambition

Golder

finds that governments based on pre-electoral coalitions are more ideologically compatible than government coalitions that are not based on electoral pacts

Golder

finds that governments take longer to form after elections than during inter-election periods and when there are many ideologically diverse parties in the legislature

Investiture vote

formal vote in the legislature to determine whether a proposed government can take office

governments are responsible to the president in an indirect way

if the president can dismiss the government by dissolving the legislature

governments are responsible to a president in a direct way

if the president can unilaterally dismiss the government in its entirety or one minister at the time

cabinets last longer

if they are majority governments, if they are single-party governments, and if the government exhibits low ideological diversity in its party membership

no uncertainty about the formateur

in presidential democracies, always the president

one star

indicates 90% confident -2 means 95% confident

negative coefficient

indicates that an increase in the variable makes it less likely that a minority government will form

a positive coefficient

indicates that an increase in the variable makes it more likely that a minority government will form

strong party

indicates whether a "merely strong" or "very strong" party exists

vote of no confidence

initiated by legislature; if the government does not obtain a legislative majority it must resign

vote of confidence

initiated by the government; if the government does not obtain a legislative majority it must resign -can be attached to pieces of legislation itself

Joint lists

involve parties agreeing to a single lost of coalition candidates

preelectoral coalition

is a collection of parties that do not compete independently at election time because they publicly agree to coordinate their campaigns, run joint campaigns, or joint lists, or enter government together following the election

legislative coalition

is a voting bloc composed of legislators who support a piece of legislation

the coefficient associate with Investiture

is always negative and significant

presidential decree

is an order by the president that has the force of law

office-seeking politician

is interested in the intrinsic benefits of office, he wants as much office as possible

Parliamentary form

is most common, followed by presidential

surplus majority government

is one in which the cabinet includes more parties than are strictly necessary to control a majority of legislative seats

a government coalition

is one that forms after the election

any democracy that has legislative responsibility but no independently elected president

is parliamentary

nonpartisan minister

is someone who does not come from the legislature

least minimal winning coalition

is the MWC with the lowest number of surplus seats

the president

is the political chief executive and head of state

prime minister

is the political chief executive and the head of government in a parliamentary democracy

One of the most important powers held by the prime minister

is to nominate cabinet members

publicly stating an intention to govern together if successful at the polls

lowest level of electoral coordination

strong party hypothesis

minority governments are more likely when there is a "strong" party

investiture hypothesis

minority governments will be less likely when there is a formal investiture vote

corporatist hypothesis

minority governments will be more likely in corporatist countries

opposition strength hypothesis

minority governments will be more likely when opposition influence is strong because: -parties may be reluctant to take policy responsibility -a party may have made a pre-election pledge not to go into government with certain parties -opposition parties have much more flexibility in choosing their campaign strategies in future elections because they do not have a past record to restrain them

presidential democracies tend to be characterized by

more minority governments and fewer coalition governments than parliamentary democracies

president's party

must be included in each cabinet regardless of its legislative size

constructive vote of no confidence

must indicate who will replace the government if the incumbent loses a vote of no confidence -reduces government instability

Pluralist interest group relations

occur when interest groups compete in the political marketplace outside of the formal policy-making process

Corporatist interest group relations

occur when key social and economic actors, such as labor, business, and agriculture groups, are integrated into the formal policy-making process

caretaker government

occurs when an election is called or when an incumbent government either resigns or is defeated in a vote of no confidence. It rules the country for an interim period until a new government is formed

minority government

one in which the governmental parties do not together command a majority of legislative seats -may be single-party minority governments or minority coalition governments

connected coalition

one in which the member parties are located directly next to each other in the policy space

minimal winning coalition (MWC)

one in which there are no parties that are not required to control a legislative majority

policy-seeking politician

only wants to shape policy

nomination agreements

parties agree to present a coalition candidate in each district rather than each party putting up their own candidate

discretionary reasons for end of government

political acts on the part of the government or opposition

democracies in which the government does not depend on a legislative majority to exist are

presidential

corporatism

ranges from 0 (low) to 5 (high)

opposition strength

ranges from 1 (low) to 9 (high)

Independently elected president

refers to a president independent from the legislature that is elected to serve a fixed term in office and cannot be removed by the legislature -elected either directly by cast ballots, or indirectly if voters cast ballots to elect an assembly whose role it is to elect a president -neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for distinguishing between the three types

Legislative Responsibility

refers to a situation in which a legislative majority has the constitutional power to remove a government from office without cause

ministerial responsibility

refers to the constitutional doctrine by which cabinet members must bear ultimate responsibility for what happens in their ministry

Principal-agent, or delegation, problem

refers to the difficulties that arise when a principal delegates authority to an agent that a. has different goals than the principal b. cannot be perfectly monitored

collective cabinet responsibility

refers to the doctrine by which ministers must publicly support collective cabinet or designs

only countries that employ disproportional electoral rules, such as single-member district plurality systems

regularly produce single parties that control a legislative majority

Gamson's law

states that cabinet portfolios will be distributed among government parties in strict proportion to the number of seats that each party contributes to the legislative majority

national unity governments

surplus majority governments created in times of crisis

coalition governments in presidential systems may be more unstable and survive for a shorter amount of time

than coalition governments in parliamentary countries

in a parliamentary system

the failure of a minority prime minister to obtain implicit legislative majority results is an early election, new round of bargaining, or a caretaker government

defining characteristic of a parliamentary democracy

the government must always enjoy the support of a legislative majority

dual ballot instructions

the party leaders' telling their supporters to cast one vote for their party and the second vote for their coalition partner

formateur

the person designated to form the government in a parliamentary regime, often the PM designate -nearly always the leader of the largest party in the legislature

The form of government depends upon

the relationship between 1. the government, comprised of the political chief executive, the ministers that head the departments 2. the legislature 3. the president

although coalition governments should not be exceptional in presidential democracies

they should definitely be less common than in parliamentary ones

Technical reasons for end of government

things beyond control of government

the reality of political competition would force politicians

to act as if they cared about both policy and office

presidents have no constitutional imperative

to form majority cabinets

Most political scientists tend to classify democracies according

to the form of government they have 1. parliamentary 2. presidential 3. mixed

President has more influence in matters of foreign policy

whereas the prime minister is more powerful in domestic politics

minority governments

will be more frequent in presidential systems than in parliamentary systems