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What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government

Publication ,  Journal Article
Martin, LW; Vanberg, G
Published in: American Political Science Review
January 1, 2020

Party elites in coalition governments are acutely aware that the deals they strike will be critically evaluated by their supporters, and that they risk losing support if they are perceived as ineffective negotiators. This has a powerful influence on the bargains parties strike. Because most supporters are unaware of the complex aspects of bargains and instead rely on simple heuristics to evaluate their most visible features, parties have incentives to meet supporter expectations primarily on easily observable outcomes. To do so, they make trade-offs on less observable outcomes. This implies that the more visible features of a bargain typically do not accurately reflect the relative success of parties in coalition negotiations. We evaluate our argument using original data on the office rewards and policy risks of portfolio allocation in 16 parliamentary democracies. Our findings support our argument, and they have important implications for the nature of representation under multiparty government.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

American Political Science Review

DOI

EISSN

1537-5943

ISSN

0003-0554

Publication Date

January 1, 2020

Volume

114

Issue

4

Start / End Page

1138 / 1154

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science
 

Citation

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Martin, L. W., & Vanberg, G. (2020). What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government. American Political Science Review, 114(4), 1138–1154. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000337
Martin, L. W., and G. Vanberg. “What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government.” American Political Science Review 114, no. 4 (January 1, 2020): 1138–54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055420000337.
Martin LW, Vanberg G. What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government. American Political Science Review. 2020 Jan 1;114(4):1138–54.
Martin, L. W., and G. Vanberg. “What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government.” American Political Science Review, vol. 114, no. 4, Jan. 2020, pp. 1138–54. Scopus, doi:10.1017/S0003055420000337.
Martin LW, Vanberg G. What You See Is Not Always What You Get: Bargaining before an Audience under Multiparty Government. American Political Science Review. 2020 Jan 1;114(4):1138–1154.
Journal cover image

Published In

American Political Science Review

DOI

EISSN

1537-5943

ISSN

0003-0554

Publication Date

January 1, 2020

Volume

114

Issue

4

Start / End Page

1138 / 1154

Related Subject Headings

  • Political Science & Public Administration
  • 4408 Political science
  • 1606 Political Science