Political Parties and Government Coalitions in the Americas

Abstract

This paper focuses on the coalition formation process in presidential systems. It shows that institutions and party positions influence the formation of government coalitions. It argues that presidents will tend to include in their cabinets parties that are politically close to their own policy positions, and will be more inclined to do so when Congress is relatively strong and made up of legislators with significant oversight authority. We corroborate our arguments with data from 13 countries with presidential systems in the Americas.