Policy-seeking parties in multiparty systems: Influence or purity?

According to the standard policy-seeking model of party behaviour, a party should always want to join a coalition if its inclusion would decrease the policy distance between the party and the winning coalition. However, in multiparty systems where no party has a majority, policy influence always com...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Party politics 2012-05, Vol.18 (3), p.297-314
Main Author: Pedersen, Helene Helboe
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior
Coalition theory
Coalitions
Democracy
Denmark
Legislative Bodies
Legislatures
Majorities
Measurement
Multiparty system
Organizational Structure
Party organization
Policy making
Political influences
Political Parties
Preferences
Public Policy
Purity
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Summary:According to the standard policy-seeking model of party behaviour, a party should always want to join a coalition if its inclusion would decrease the policy distance between the party and the winning coalition. However, in multiparty systems where no party has a majority, policy influence always comes at a cost to the party’s preferred policy. A party has to moderate its own policy principles in order to join winning coalitions and influence public policy. Based on data from 14 Danish parties from 1971 to 2005, this article shows that the policy-seeking behaviour of political parties is affected by the organizational constraints a party poses on its representatives in parliament. Parties strongly constrained by the party organization tend to ask more questions and raise more interpellations in parliament than parties with weaker organizational constraints. These latter parties, on the other hand, tend to participate more frequently in winning legislative coalitions.
ISSN:1354-0688
1460-3683
DOI:10.1177/1354068810382940