Who gets what in foreign affairs? Explaining the allocation of foreign ministries in coalition governments

Tools

Oppermann, Kai and Brummer, Klaus (2018) Who gets what in foreign affairs? Explaining the allocation of foreign ministries in coalition governments. Government And Opposition. ISSN 0017-257X

[img] PDF - Accepted Version
Available under License All Rights Reserved.
Download (388kB)

Abstract

In coalition governments, political parties are concerned not only with how many but also with which departments they control. The foreign ministry, in turn, is among the most highly considered prizes in coalition negotiations. This article develops hypotheses to explain under which conditions the foreign ministry will likely be allocated to a ‘junior coalition partner’. Those conditions are: the relative size of coalition parties; the proximity of their foreign policy positions; the party family of the junior coalition party; the salience of foreign policy to the coalition parties; and past allocations of the foreign ministry to junior coalition partners. Employing a crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, the article demonstrates that although the conjunction of the relative size of the junior partner and it having led the foreign ministry in the past is not sufficient by itself, those two factors matter greatly for the junior partner being allocated the foreign ministry.

Item Type: Article
Schools and Departments: School of Law, Politics and Sociology > Politics
Research Centres and Groups: Sussex European Institute
Subjects: J Political Science
J Political Science > JZ International relations
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Kai Oppermann
Date Deposited: 22 Mar 2018 10:43
Last Modified: 15 Aug 2018 14:05
URI: http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/74588

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update