Journal Articles

How intra-party power relations affect the coalition behaviour of political parties

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This article examines the impact of intra-party politics on the coalition behaviour of political parties. The policy-seeking model of party behaviour is refined by differentiating between policy purity and policy influence, arguing that the distribution of power within political parties affects how inclined they are to abandon policy ideals to participate in coalitions and thereby gain influence on policy. Three contradictory hypotheses are tested in a multivariate analysis based on the legislative coalition behaviour of 11 Danish parties from 1953 to 2004. The analysis shows that, among parties close to the government in policy terms, those dominated by the parliamentary party group more frequently enter binding legislative coalitions than do parties dominated by their national party organization. This implies that the ability of parties to convert parliamentary representation into actual influence on parliamentary decisions is conditioned by their internal distribution of power.

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Detail Information

Series Title

Party Politics

Call Number

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Publisher

: sage publisher., 2010

Collation

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Language

English

ISBN/ISSN

13540688

Classification

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Content Type

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Media Type

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Carrier Type

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Edition

Vol. 16 no. 6, November 2010.pp. 737-754

Subject(s)

Political parties
Denmark
Policy Goals
Locus of power
How intra-party power relations affect

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