America as a model?

A critical review of Laver and Shepsle’s coalition model

Abstract

In the current paper, we critically review one of the most influential models of political coalition building framed in a rational-choice perspective, that is, the one developed by Laver and Shepsle in Making and Breaking Governments, where they departed from Rikers’s (1967) size principle theory towards a policy-based portfolio allocation theory. We make the point that, despite the advances carried out by LS’s theory, it remains hugely attached to assumptions that are strongly inspired by the American committee government and hardy could travel to other institutional setting like the parliamentary and cabinet systems.

Key words: Rational choice; Political coalitions; Laver and Shepsle.