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Why Pre-Electoral Coalitions in Presidential Systems?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2015

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Abstract

Why do political parties join coalitions to support other parties’ presidential candidates if presidents, once elected, are not bound to their pre-electoral pledges? This article argues that policy agreements made publicly between coalition partners during the campaign help parties pursue policy goals. However, parties cannot use pre-electoral coalitions to secure access to patronage, pork and government benefits under the control of presidents because they cannot hold presidents accountable to these agreements. Quantitative analysis of Latin American electoral coalitions demonstrates that political parties are more likely to form presidential electoral coalitions as the ideological distance between them decreases. Yet presidential electoral coalitions tend not to include non-programmatic political parties, even though such office-oriented parties are unconstrained by ideological considerations.

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Articles
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© Cambridge University Press 2015 
Figure 0

Table 1Independent Variables and Expected Relationships

Figure 1

Table 2Frequency of Electoral Coalitions among Major Presidential Candidates

Figure 2

Fig. 1Coalition candidates’ vote share across presidential elections

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Table 3The Probability of Presidential Electoral Coalition Formation

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Fig. 2Marginal effects on the probability of pre-electoral coalition formation

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