Veto players and institutional analysis

The veto players theory can be used to analyze all political systems regard less of regime ( presidential or parliamentary), party system (one-, two-, or multiparty), and type of parliament (unicameral or multicameral). This p aper develops the veto players theory to account for a series of important political phenomena: the difference between majoritarian and supermajoritar ian institutions; the importance ob absenteeism, or of political marginaliz ation; the importance of agenda control and referendums; the reasons for go vernment stability (parliamentary systems) and regime stability (presidenti al systems); the reasons for independence of bureaucracies, and judicial in dependence. All these phenomena are analyzed in a coherent way, on the basi s of the same framework. Empirical evidence from existing literature corrob orating the theory is provided.