THE POLICY BASIS OF GOVERNMENT COALITIONS - A COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION

This article examines a key assumption of many approaches to the analy sis of government coalitions, that parties are exclusively concerned w ith the achievement of immediate policy objectives. We first consider the extent to which policy considerations can be used to characterize coalitions formed in eight postwar democracies, using party election p rogrammed to operationalize and test a variety of policy-based models of government formation. We then see what parties get from governments in terms of declared policy commitments, both in and out of office. T he conclusion in both caws is that party policy clearly influences the formation of coalitions, but its impact is substantially modified by long-term structures and cleavages within different party systems.