Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective

Minority Presidents in Multiparty Systems

Timothy J Power author Nic Cheeseman author Paul Chaisty author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:22nd Feb '18

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Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective cover

This book provides the first cross-regional study of an increasingly important form of politics: coalitional presidentialism. Drawing on original research of minority presidents in the democratising and hybrid regimes of Armenia, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kenya, Malawi, Russia, and Ukraine, it seeks to understand how presidents who lack single party legislative majorities build and manage cross-party support in legislative assemblies. It develops a framework for analysing this phenomenon, and blends data from MP surveys, detailed case studies, and wider legislative and political contexts, to analyse systematically the tools that presidents deploy to manage their coalitions. The authors focus on five key legislative, cabinet, partisan, budget, and informal (exchange of favours) tools that are utilised by minority presidents. They contend that these constitute the 'toolbox' for coalition management, and argue that minority presidents will act with imperfect or incomplete information to deploy tools that provide the highest return of political support with the lowest expenditure of political capital. In developing this analysis, the book assembles a set of concepts, definitions, indicators, analytical frameworks, and propositions that establish the main parameters of coalitional presidentialism. In this way, Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective provides crucial insights into this mode of governance. Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization process that accompanied the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series is primarily Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. The series editor is Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Chaisty, Cheeseman, and Power systematically canvass the tools that minority presidents use to govern. No other work combines this level of insight into comparative constitutional design with such breadth of regional expertise. * John M. Carey, Dartmouth College *
In a world of rising political fragmentation, this book is a must-read for understanding minority presidentialism. An important advance in our global understanding of contemporary democracy. * Rachel Beatty Riedl, Cornell University *
Coalitional Presidentialism sets a new frontier in the study of executive-legislative politics. Chaisty, Cheeseman, and Power systematically analyze how minority presidents use formal legislative powers, the allocation of cabinet portfolios, party politics, budgetary authority, and executive "favors" to build majorities. * Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, University of Notre Dame *
Coalitional Presidentialism makes a valuable distinction between the coalitions presidents form at the outset of their presidencies and the subsequent evolution of those coalitions. The authors employ an array of methods, including carefully chosen case studies, to propose broader generalizations that are sensitive to contingency and context. * Thomas F. Remington, Emory University *
This impressive book demonstrates the value of research collaboration by consolidating in one place, in one book, many of the most important arguments about comparative presidentialism. Through careful comparative analyses, colourful details, and quotes from numerous interviews with politicians, this book demonstrates that governing presidential systems is not easy anywhere. * Marisa Kellam, Waseda University *
...the book presents a major leap forward in research on coalitional presidentialism and comparative studies of presidential politics alike. It presents an excellent and insightful analysis based on an unrivalled breadth and depth of quantitative and qualitative data...Given recent election results in several of the countries covered by this volume, it is clear that coalitional presidentialism is here to stay. As the first crossregional analysis of coalitional presidentialism to date, this book will hence undoubtedly serve as an inspiration and benchmark for future studies of this intriguing phenomenon. * Philipp Köker, Leibniz University Hannover, Europe-Asia Studies *

ISBN: 9780198817208

Dimensions: 239mm x 164mm x 23mm

Weight: 586g

282 pages