Presidentialism and Coalition Governments: on the Influence of Cabinet Ministers in the Decision-making Process
Abstract: Do cabinet ministers influence government decisions in presidential coalition governments? Coalition governments in presidential systems imply a principal-agent problem in which ministers are agents of the president and of their own party. The problem the president faces is to reduce policy drift, while ministers act to maximize electoral returns of government participation. The main hypothesis is that the greater the ideological distance between the president and the minister, the lower the minister’s influence over Executive decisions. An original dataset about ministerial influence over legislative agenda and budget allocation in Brazil (1995-2010) is used. The main result is that ideological distance reduces ministerial influence and that legislative decisions are concentrated in the president's party while budget allocation is shared with coalition partners.
